Pupils’ ‘awesome’ week at shipyard
Last updated 15:41, Friday, 27 June 2008
PUPILS from St Joseph’s Catholic High School in Workington showed dedication and enthusiasm recently on their work experience placement. The five teenagers spent a week with BAE Systems Submarine Solutions in Barrow, making a daily three-and-a-half hour round trip to get to the shipyard.
Aidan Thomlinson, Richard Teasdale, Paul Bennett and Adam White, who are all aged 15 and Jake Smith, 14, were up at 5am every morning to catch the train to Barrow.
At the end of their day, they then had a two-hour bus ride back home.
During their work experience week, the pupils caught a glimpse of one of the world’s most complex engineering projects, the 7,400 tonne nuclear powered attack submarine, HMS Astute on a tour of the Devonshire Dock Hall.
Martin Pulford, senior learning and development manager at BAE Systems, said: “By chance, at the 2008 Cumbria Business Education Consortium annual awards ceremony, I met Sybil Worsley who is a teacher from St Joseph’s School.
“She was impressed with how we develop our Early Career People and wondered whether we could give some of her pupils work experience.
“We knew it would be a tough challenge, bearing in mind the travel involved, but eventually managed to overcome these obstacles and succeeded.
“All of the five students were extremely interested in engineering, science and mathematics.
“Through the excellent placement programme that the Industrial Placements had put together for them, and a conversation about their futures with me, they all now hope to proceed towards degrees at university.”
The pupils said their week at BAE Systems had been an “awesome” experience and, after their first taste of engineering, would like to pursue a similar career when they leave school.
Adam White said: “It’s been excellent; it’s been a great experience.”
The pupils were supervised by graduate industrial placements Sara Thurman, Tom Barker and Rob Chaplin.
