| British Energy forms new learning partnership | | Print | |
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British Energy’s Sizewell B nuclear power station and Leiston High School have formed a new partnership to provide GCSE pupils with access to engineering training and equipment.  The nuclear power station in Suffolk has provided the school, based just two miles away, with £10,000 toward its GCSE Double award in Engineering plus access to BE mechanical engineers and workshops. Ian Flintoff, head teacher of Leiston High School, explained: “This scheme enables our students to work with professional engineers, to use cutting edge training facilities and to learn the skills they need to take up a career in the engineering field if they choose to do so. “Leiston High School has recently become one of only a few specialist vocational schools in the country. This means that we are committed to offer our students genuine work related learning opportunities in partnership with quality employers such as British Energy.” The 21 students, were shown around the maintenance workshops at Sizewell B and given their own overalls, safety boots and helmets. Brian Dowds, station director of the UK’s only pressurised water reactor, said the scheme was an excellent way to promote BE’s four-year apprenticeship schemes, and graduate positions. Brian said: “We see this as a great opportunity both to assist in the development of young people in the local community, and to encourage people back into our industries.” The partnership will see the pupils given supervised visits to the station’s workshops giving them first-hand experience of an industrial work place. The students are already working on a task to research and design ideas for a product that could potentially be used by the conditioning monitoring team at Sizewell B. They will individually present their ideas and findings to Sizewell B engineers who will give feedback and assessment on the students work. As part of the scheme the students also created their own crest to be displayed on the course members t-shirts and website. The website is being up-dated weekly as a revision tool and to allow students who miss work to easily catch-up. The website can be found at http://www.lhsengineering.ik.org. |
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