Over 500 secondary school pupils from across Angus, Dundee & Perthshire were reaching for the sky when they attended a curated careers fair at the High School of Dundee’s Mayfield Sports Centre.
The 3-day event, aptly titled “Careers Taking Off”, welcomed pupils from S1 -S3, with some keen senior pupils also in attendance, to think about a career within aerospace, aviation, and engineering.
The event, organised by Developing the Young Workforce Tay Cities (DYW Tay Cities), gave the young people the chance to take part in a range of interactive workshops run by eight organisations within the aerospace, aviation & engineering sectors from across Scotland.
The organisations in attendance were STAR Dundee, Edinburgh Airport, Leonardo, ATL Turbines, Dundee Science Centre, RAF, Abertay University, the Army and a private pilot.
Workshop activities included spacecraft technology, engineering the perfect paper aeroplane, learning about the world of space, testing out an infa-red detector (a counter measure system on aircraft), fixing small components of an aircraft and much more! Whilst participating in the workshops, pupils also had the opportunity to engage with staff from each organisation to ask questions about their respective industry.
Morgan McLeod, Employer Liaison Officer with DYW Tay Cities, said, “We really wanted to showcase the vast variety of careers available within the aviation and aerospace industry in a fun and interactive way rather than through the traditional careers fair.
“The young people really got stuck into all of the employer led workshops, which was really fantastic to see! I think a lot of the pupils now realise that there are so many more career opportunities within the industry rather than just a pilot.
“We couldn’t have run this event without the help of all the organisations involved and the team at The High School of Dundee for facilitating us to use Mayfield Sports Centre. We hope that this is just the beginning of a budding relationship between Developing the Young Workforce Tay Cities and The High School of Dundee, so we can inspire more young people across Tay Cities.”
High School of Dundee Rector, Lise Hudson, said, “It was a privilege for us to host this event and to be able to see so many young people fully engaged and enthusiastic about exploring these career sectors further.
“The wider messages about finding your own pathways and not being limited by traditional destinations beyond school was a powerful and important focus for the event.
“For young people to hear directly from those working in aerospace, engineering, design and manufacture was inspirational for all of us who were lucky enough to attend.”
Thank you to the High School of Dundee Old Girls’ Club who kindly donated prizes which were awarded to some of the young people in attendance who were identified from the workshops as being most engaged with the sectors. The High School of Dundee pupils to receive awards were Grace McNally and Ayyan Salimi.
President of the Old Girls’ Club, Ashley Petrie, said, “We are always keen to support our young people in exciting initiatives that make positive impacts for them and this seemed like a great fit.”
