The announcement was made during Rail Week and aims to contribute to the Year of Engineering by helping to tackle the skills shortage in the UK. The scheme will eventually see 50 schools from Ashford, Doncaster, Bristol, Newton Aycliffe and West London partner with engineers from Hitachi’s nearby train depots.
Hitachi says it recognises the importance of working with schools to raise awareness of the opportunities available in the industry. It chose to partner with Primary Engineer due its work over the last 13 years creating engineering programmes for children of all ages.
Teams of pupils from the schools will attend two celebration events in 2019 run by Primary Engineer to test the rail vehicles and showcase their efforts with the Hitachi Rail engineer judges.
Nusrat Ghani, Year of Engineering minister, said: “Working in partnership with industry, education and charity sectors to inspire young people from all backgrounds is at the heart of the campaign, and this new programme from Hitachi Rail and Primary Engineer is a fantastic demonstration of what that can achieve.
“By bringing children across the UK face to face with real engineers and engineering challenges, I have no doubt that the programme will inspire many young inventors, creators and problem-solvers to take a closer look at the amazing ways they could shape the future as engineers.”
Karen Boswell, managing director at Hitachi Rail, said: “We are absolutely committed to developing UK skills in order to grow our business and support the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
“To be able to give thousands of young people a chance to be inspired by the pioneering work we do at our factory and depots across the country is fantastic. STEM education is critically important, and I’m thrilled that Hitachi Rail is the first train builder to join in a partnership with Primary Engineer to support the great work they do in our schools.”
Dr Susan Scurlock, founder and chief executive of Primary Engineer, concluded: “The opportunity to work with Hitachi Rail using their trains and engineers to inspire children, teachers and the wider community has been incredible. We are very proud to be taking this project into schools and opening a whole new area of careers to young people.”
