Today’s STEM students are tomorrow’s industry leaders

Perkins is a technology-driven company. Our growth and success depends on finding, recruiting and retaining trained professionals in a broad range of disciplines, but primarily Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). That, of course, means that there must be a steady stream of people who are attracted to those disciplines and choose them as their career paths. 

But, with all of the other opportunities available to talented university or school leavers today, it’s not enough to simply hope enough of them choose STEM careers. Companies like Perkins that depend on STEM graduates for the future success of our business and the continued economic growth of our customers must actively support programmes that encourage young people to choose those careers.

Perkins facilities around the world conduct and support outreach programmes that directly engage students with the goal of introducing them to the intellectual challenges and career opportunities offered by the STEM disciplines. From primary schools through universities, Perkins as a company and Perkins employees as individually registered STEM Ambassadors, support STEM events and provide age-appropriate programmes.

Peterborough-based STEM Ambassadors are actively engaged in organising and participating in a wide variety of events which form part of our annual STEM programme. We work with STEMPoint, our STEM Learning hub to engage local schools in our activities and to support STEM activities organised by STEMpoint. Our events include:

• British Science Week
  An annual event run by the British Science Association held each March and coordinated locally by the Peterborough Young Engineers and Perkins STEM Ambassadors. It is focused on hands-on fun STEM activities and recently involved more than 300 local school pupils in a half-day rocket making and launching activity.
  
  
• First Lego League
  A global event held from September through January annually. More than 40 Peterborough Ambassadors coach 100 or more students, age 9 to 11, through the design and construction of Lego robots for a competition hosted at the Peterborough facility. The overall winner moves on to the regional finals and potentially to the international championship.
  
  
• STEM festivals
  In addition to the Peterborough STEM Festival, Perkins supports many local school events with hands-on fun activities presented by teams of STEM Ambassadors. These festivals provide great opportunities to introduce young people to STEM roles within the Perkins organisation and the career satisfaction that comes with them.
  
  
• Women in Engineering Day
  Students from Peterborough schools attend an event organised by our STEM Ambassadors which includes women in engineering presentations and tours of the facility guided by female engineers. Our female STEM Ambassadors also support virtual events organised by STEMpoint, this year the STEMpoint event was attended by over 1,000 students.
  
  
• Facility tours
  Focused primarily on college students and teachers, an ambassador-guided tour of the Peterborough facility allows participants to see first-hand how STEM is applied to the design, testing and manufacture of Perkins engines. A tour also provides an opportunity to meet both STEM graduates and apprentices who have joined Perkins via both routes.
  
  

Outreach to local schools to support STEM activities is an important activity for Perkins facilities in the UK, the United States and China.

Perkins US facilities in Griffin, Georgia and Seguin, Texas both provide regular support to local school programmes that encourage STEM activities.

Our Wuxi employees host a job shadow day for university students that includes a factory tour where they learn about modern manufacturing processes and the different job roles required to implement them. Wuxi also regularly hosts visits by local school children who have an interest in learning about STEM careers.

Perkins will continue to reach out to all young people and actively encourage them to consider STEM related educational choices and careers. It’s essential that more of them do, because the increasingly technological future depends on them.

Discover more about our STEM programme here.