£40,000 project aims to tackle shortage of engineering skills in classrooms of Boston

The authority has teamed up with national organisation Primary Engineer to try and encourage youngsters to make a career in the industry more attractive to them from an early age.

The initial two-year engineering education project will provide teachers across the three tiers of education - Early Years, Primary and Secondary - with the necessary training and tools to deliver curriculum-linked engineering projects.

The council says it will establish strong education and engineering industry links “through the delivery of sustainable engineering education delivered by trained teachers and by partnering schools and pupils with engineers in the classroom to develop skills, increase aspiration and heighten career awareness and opportunities, both locally and regionally”.

A number of primary schools along with representatives from Primary Engineer and a number of expert engineers from local firms and organisations will be attending the launch at Metsa Wood in Boston on Thursday 20 September.

Clive Gibbon, Boston Borough Council's economic development manager said: "We have a serious challenge ahead to nurture and develop the engineers and technicians we need to support, retain and grow our business community.

“Working in partnership with our excellent local schools we can ensure that we are serving our talented young people and our business community alike.

"Delivering this project across the borough will give confidence to business that we are listening and acting upon their concerns and raising the aspirations of our young people whilst highlighting opportunities where they can build a career locally."

At the launch event, teachers from the schools will be challenged to build a shoe box vehicle (Key Stage 1) and an electric and solar powered vehicle (Key Stage 2) to be able to move along a tracked path on its own as part of the event.

They will be supplied with all materials necessary and have assistance on hand from expert engineers from Metsa Wood, RAF, Ministry of Defence, Anglian Water and Western Power.

There has also been interest in the project from National Grid, Network Rail, Freshtime, TH Clements and Dyson Beeswax Farms.

The launch follows on from a successful fluid power challenge trial day held with secondary school staff, where they had to design and build a device which used pneumatics or hydraulics to rotate, grab and lift overseen by engineers from Western Power, Parkinson Harness Technology and MetsaWood Ltd.

Mr Gibbon said: "They were given all the items needed and soon had their calculators out to test theories. They all produced something different and really embraced the challenges."