Heritage students seize engineering opportunity

As part of the town’s annual Made in Chesterfield festival, which celebrates the manufacturing and engineering sector, six Year 10 students from Heritage High School visited MSE Hiller, based at Markham Vale.

The popular month-long festival, which is organised by Destination Chesterfield and brings businesses, primary and secondary schools and training providers together to showcase the sector to school children across north east Derbyshire

This year, more local engineering and manufacturing firms than ever have signed up to offer students a chance to tour their facilities and try their hand at a range of activities in a bid to spark their interest in a career in the sector.

Other manufacturing businesses offering secondary school experiences include United Cast Bar, Brampton Brewery, Cathelco, Techman Engineering, Palamatic, Trans-Tronic and Precision Products UK, while Mintdale Engineering and Krantech have organised tours for primary schools at their facilities.

‘Hands on’ education was the name when six Year 10 Engineering students from Heritage High School visited MSE Hiller, based at Markham Vale for some practical work experience.

The day began with a tour of the work site. Interesting sights included viewing one of MSE Hiller’s machines worth £1 million, which is one of the largest machines in the country. Also impressive was the large indoor concrete bunker which protectively houses a massive centrifuge.

Seeing the way that sludge and water are separated was demonstrated in the laboratory.

One student, Harry Clarkson said:-

‘This was just like our school science labs but much more modern and state of the art.’

After an informative video presentation explaining how hydraulics work and looking at the different components of Hiller’s machinery, students were literally thrown in at the deep end of engineering and asked to weld metal together and imprint their initials upon it.

Students donned overalls, steel capped boots and welding helmets to begin their first practical engineering task. The difficulties of the task were soon obvious.

Adam Hendley, Heritage student admitted:-

‘It was a bit daunting to start with but luckily I soon got the hang of it!’

The visit was set up by Mrs Oley-Jones, the school’s Alternative Curriculum & Achievement Coordinator as part of November’s Made in Chesterfield festival which celebrates local manufacturing.

Student Owen Ordidge highlighted the positive nature of the work experience. He said:-

‘The visit has made me much keener to focus on Engineering GCSE. Now that I have experienced how the subject comes alive in the work place, it has made me realise that studying in the first instance is the key to doing well in a subject like Engineering.’

Visits like these are invaluable to secondary school students as they are able to witness engineering skills first hand and with facilities that just can’t be replicated in a school environment.

Made in Chesterfield is coordinated by Destination Chesterfield in partnership with MSE Hiller, United Cast Bar Ltd, NatWest, Derbyshire Education Business Partnership, Placing Futures, NLT Training, Department of International Trade, East Midlands Chamber, the University of Derby and Positive 4 Young People.