BAE Systems and The Manufacturing Institute (TMI) have joined forces with Strata Manufacturing (Strata) and Abu Dhabi Education Council to challenge and inspire the young people of the UAE through a competition designed to get them thinking about manufacturing and engineering as a career choice.
The Make It Competition sees 13 and 14 year old students from schools in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain battling it out to create, cost and market a new product which they will then pitch to a panel of industry experts from Strata and BAE Systems.
The Industry Experts, together with BAE Systems’ graduates and apprentices and volunteers from UAE University in Al Ain and NYU in Abu Dhabi, will be available on each day to question and challenge the students before the final judging takes place at the end of the event.
Stephanie Boyle (pictured), who runs Make It challenges across the UK for TMI, said: “We’ve inspired more than 60,000 teenagers and teachers with our challenges over the last 10 years and having the opportunity to bring all that expertise and knowledge to youngsters in the UAE is very exciting. I’m delighted that we’ve been able to bring Make It to a new part of the world.”
During the events in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi, teams of eight from six schools in from each city will compete against each other to tackle a practical problem and test their skills in:
- Designing an innovation
- Building the concept
- Costing the project
- Marketing and selling it to “potential investors”
BAE Systems’ manufacturing operations director, Dave Holmes, said: “BAE Systems has been involved with Make It for a number of years and I am looking forward to seeing how the Emirati students tackle the competition. Whilst the experience will be both challenging and exciting, we hope the students will be inspired to think about their future careers, hopefully in the engineering or manufacturing industry in the UAE.”
The Competition will be held at UAE University in Al Ain on Monday 2 November and at NYU Abu Dhabi on 4 November.
