Over 20 young students last night graduated from the latest Saturday Club for budding engineers.
Welsh Minister for the Economy Science and Transport, Mrs Edwina Hart, presented 23 Y10, 11 and 12 students with their CREST certificates after they successfully completed a three-months course at the Waterton Centre, Bridgend.
The Saturday Club is supported and sponsored by Ford and Control 2K and during the course the 14-16 year old students learned mechanical, electrical and systems control, giving them a head-start when job hunting or looking for apprenticeships and they toured the Ford production lines at Bridgend.
Their Saturday Club course-work goes into their personal development files along with their qualification certificates.
Ford also gives each graduate a modern tool kit and book about the industry.
The Minister said she was delighted to see half of the course students were girls and it proved engineering was no barrier to them if they were thinking of such careers and added, “This Saturday Club is good, it works, and gives young people and their parents an incite into what modern industry is really like.
“It can change perceptions for the better and it’s important parents see what careers are available and suitable for their children to make their livelihoods out of industry.”
Engineering services manager at Ford Bridgend Engine Plant, Mark Thomas, told the students that he hoped they had learned a bit more about what modern engineering required from students thinking about such careers, and added they had shown tremendous commitment by giving up their Saturday mornings for three months to complete the course.
The Ford Control 2K Saturday Club has been running for 16 years and 416 students have taken part and careers adviser Martin Blamey said the Welsh Government has provided for two more courses, beginning in the autumn 2015 and spring 2016, but places are limited and applications are now open for them.
Click on the following link for details of the next Saturday Club log onto t
