Leamington charity teams up with the RAF to help people deliver support to remote areas in need

A charity based in Leamington has teamed up with the Royal Air Force to deliver a virtual online course to help people deliver support to remote areas in need.

The Smallpeice Trust charity, which helps young people into engineering, has set up the Humanitarian Aid Engineering Experience to help the RAF in these times of remote learning, due to the coronavirus panedemic.

Aimed at Year nine, 13-14 year old students, the virtual course will provide first-hand experiences of how the RAF supports the many challenges facing the world; from floods in the UK, to the Ebola outbreak in Africa, and hurricanes in the Caribbean.

An expert team of RAF education officers have developed the course with a series of engineering challenges that the students will have to overcome. This will include making an estimation of the equipment that will be required to set up a RAF Forward Operation Base, designing and building prototypes and tackling budgets.

Kevin Stenson, CEO of the Smallpeice Trust, said: “With a deficit of two million people in UK engineering and the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in Europe (just 24 per cent of women are currently in the UK's core-STEM workforce), we are working with our partner organisations including the RAF to excite children about the possibilities of working in STEM.

"The Humanitarian Aid Engineering Experience enables pupils to learn about the practical ways the RAF helps countries in need. During Covid-19 these remote courses are proving to be a successful alternative to engage young people and help them develop key engineering skills at home.”

Russell Barnes, wing commander at the RAF, said: “We’re excited to work with The Smallpeice Trust on this new online course which will enable more young people to experience the positive impact of engineering, as they work on real-life challenges, all from the comfort of their homes. The mission challenges are designed to encourage creativity and problem-solving abilities, key skills not only for engineering but all aspects of life.”

For further information on how the power of engineering can solve real-life problems, please visit https://www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/