After six heats over six months students from West Derby School are crowned winners of the Liverpool City Region Robot Challenge.
The event took place yesterday (Wednesday 17 June) at Aintree Racecourse as part of the International Festival for Business, taking place in June and July 2014.
Alan Seeley, Human Resources Manager of Getrag Ford presented the winning team with their trophy.
The Employment and Skills Board of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) teamed up with MerseySTEM to launch the Robot Challenge Days to promote engineering and technology among young people.
More than 50 schools from across the Liverpool City Region (covering the local authority areas of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral) took part in the tournament. Each Robot Challenge saw teams of students take part in a full day event starting with building their robots with the support of manufacturing employers in the region. The robots then competed in a series of challenges against other team’s robots. The winners and selected runners-up from each heat went forward to the final.
Robert Hough, Chair of Liverpool City Region LEP said: “The Robot Challenge Days have been a huge success and I would like to thank all the students, schools and businesses that took part over the last six months.
“As the City Region’s economy continues to improve, more companies are facing a shortage of skilled workers, especially in Advanced Manufacturing. Now more than ever our future depends on a workforce with the necessary talents and training for the jobs of today and tomorrow, and the best way to ensure a steady supply of workers is through education. That is why the Robot Challenge Days have been so important; they have provided an opportunity for our young people to really engage with the possibility of working in this sector and hopefully encourage them that Advanced Manufacturing is an exciting and rewarding career.”
Robert added: “The skills agenda is a key theme for our Making It Board and through its collective profile and via individual member activity we will ensure that the skills of our next generation of workers are at the forefront of the work we do.”
Alan Seeley, Human Resources Manager of Getrag Ford and member of the LCR Making It Board said: “To remain competitive as manufacturers and ensure we seize on future opportunities for business, investment in the skills of our workers is vital. In particular, we recognise that Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills are essential to pursue a career in manufacturing engineering. By helping young people engage in these skills we can hopefully spark an interest and show the benefits of studying STEM subjects to our future workforce.”
This project took place as part of The Skills Show Experience, supported by the European Social Fund and the National Careers Service.