Howden and Primary Engineer are back for 2024/2025!

Howden and Primary Engineer have joined forces for the third year running to bring engineering into classrooms across Scotland with Primary Engineer’s Leaders Award Competition.

The competition asks pupils aged 3-19 “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” and is free to every school and home educated group in the UK. The initiative encourages pupils to identify problems in the world around them and come up with creative solutions, embedding within them that innovative problem-solving is a key part of being an engineer.

The real impact of the competition comes from Primary Engineer linking schools with engineering professionals to provide meaningful engineer engagement, first-hand introduction to the world of engineering and supporting schools with getting started on the competition.

The engineer engagement opportunities are varied and flexible. Ryan, Director of Engineering at Howden, took part in a pre-recorded online video, a 10-15 minute video talking about his job and what he loves about the world of engineering. The video was sent out to all the schools in Scotland who had signed up to the competition and to date has been viewed by over 2,010 pupils.

”Watched the pre-recorded videos of an engineer very useful but also enjoyed the page with lots of engineers and their journeys/inspiration was very useful for high school students to relate to”. The Featherstone Academy

Plus Howden invited pupils in from local schools to have a guided tour around their site and to interview engineers from different sectors.

Howden’s ‘Bright Futures’ community volunteering programme was launched to aligned with their social commitments to champion diversity, fairness and equality of opportunity. Since the implementation of the ‘Bright Futures’ program in 2021, Howden has successfully connected with primary and secondary schools, community groups and organisations across Scotland. With a particular focus on supporting underrepresented and disadvantaged people within communities, they have hosted workshops both on and off-site to encourage young people to explore Engineering and STEM subjects. Howden’s team of volunteers seek to inspire the future generations of Engineers and Scientists, to break down barriers and stigmas in the industry and to encourage everyone to learn something new and have fun. The Primary Engineer partnership will help Howden achieve their environmental and social strategy which promotes diversity of a global workforce and positive community impact.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Primary Engineer for another year and to once again support the inspiring Leaders Award Competition. We look forward to seeing the innovative ideas and creative solutions from the next generation of young engineers!” Howden

Information on how to participate in this year’s competition is available to all schools and teachers via the website: www.leadersaward.com.