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Enterprise hub Engine Shed launch school Tech Tours

Blackhorse Primary School children enjoy a coding workshop using Scratch

Press release issued: 6 February 2020

Bristol’s leading enterprise hub, Engine Shed, has launched Tech Tours for school pupils to ignite long-term interest in STEAM subjects, set up in partnership with award-winning technology and business consultancy BJSS and the University of Bristol spin-out haptics firm Ultraleap.

Tech Tours offers primary and early secondary schools in the West of England the opportunity to spend a day at Engine Shed and Ultraleap for a variety of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) activities, including a coding workshop and a visit to Ultraleap’s Experience Room to feel the magic of mid-air haptics and 3D tracking.

Tech Tours is part of Engine Shed’s Diverse Workforce for the Future programme which works with partners to help raise awareness of opportunities for young people and engage them with the workplace.

The tours aim to inspire younger children about the diversity of creative and tech jobs in the region, and to ignite in them a long-term interest in STEAM subjects to pursue their career goals.

Lorraine Fairbanks, Partnerships Manager at Engine Shed, said: “We are so pleased to be able to offer these new tours with some fantastic partners. We aim to give young people inspiration that there are exciting tech and creative jobs in the region and to show them how to access free resources to continue their journey into these sectors.”

Tom Carter, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Ultraleap, added: “As a company that was born out of the University of Bristol, with firm roots in the area, we’re proud to support initiatives that help raise awareness of the opportunities tech can provide for all young people.

“We hope to give their learnings real world connections and demonstrate the positive impact they can have on the future of the world, so it becomes more likely that they will develop a passion for STEM and pursue it as a career.”

Konrad Empacher, BJSS Head of Delivery, said: “We want a balanced tech sector filled with opportunities. We are doing our part by inspiring young people to participate in our industry. By partnering with Engine Shed for Tech Tours, we will inspire even more young people to learn more about technology and ensure that they are not excluded from the digital future.”

Further information

Engine Shed is a collaboration between Bristol City Council, the University of Bristol and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership at the heart of Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone. Their mission is to stimulate long term economic growth by supporting business, inspiring young people to get involved and to showcase to the public and potential inward investors the exciting opportunities that exist here.

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