Inspiring the future generation of engineers

UKAEA has recently hosted its first batch of work experience students, all fresh from their GCSE exams and all aspiring young engineers. Each of these students were supervised by someone within the company, three of these supervisors were UKAEA graduates (Mark, Adomas and Joe), and given work to do throughout the week.

The students got involved in a wide variety of work such as impact analysis in the Central Engineering department, C++ and Python programming in CCFE, conceptual design development in RACE and much more. Each of these students were very professional in their approach and were keen to make the most of the week at UKAEA.

They also got to go on tours of the two tokamaks, JET and MAST-U, along with RACE and UKAEAs new apprentice training centre, OAS. They even got to interview UKAEA CEO himself, Prof. Ian Chapman. They got to quiz him on the future of UKAEA after Brexit and his opinion on the future of fusion.

 

These students got a huge amount out of their week here at UKAEA, but these work experience schemes are extremely worthwhile to industry as well. Not only do we get to experience mentoring young people, but we get encourage more and more young people to pursue STEM careers. As recent departmental talks have shown, the statistics on women in STEM careers is astonishing, and this shows UKAEAs dedication to making a difference at an early age. Over half of the work experience students were young women; hopefully they were inspired to continue further.

Further to this, the fusion industry is rapidly becoming full of an older generation, and this knowledge must be passed on. DEMO is currently advertised at power on the grid by 2060; even as a first-year graduate, I will be approaching retirement by then. As a graduate engineer, I am well aware of the benefits to a graduate scheme such as the one I am currently partaking in. In addition to the Graduate and Apprenticeship scheme, the Year in Industry, Summer Placements, Culham Plasma Physics Summer School and Power Academy all aid the development and knowledge transfer to new and upcoming engineers and scientists and is vitally important if fusion power is to succeed.

UKAEA will be welcoming another group of work experience students in August and we wish them the best of luck. The future of fusion is bright if we continue to encourage young people from all backgrounds to pursue STEM careers.