STUDENTS from five schools in and around Malvern and Worcester spent the day at QinetiQ in a bid to inspire the next generation of engineers, scientists and technologists.

Around 100 pupils from Hanley Castle High School, The Chase School, John Masefield High School, Dyson Perrins High School and Nunnery Wood High School took part in a number of IT and cyber-related activities.

The year 8 pupils worked in teams to build and programme robots to complete an obstacle course, and took part in a human behaviour and simulation challenge and a demonstration of QinetiQ technologies and robots.

The pupils also took part in a Raspberry Pi challenge, where they unravelled codes and fine-tuned parameters to get an astronaut through space station airlocks in the fastest time.

Ian Beresford, engineering director at QinetiQ, who opened the day’s events in Malvern, said: “We hope that the schools thoroughly enjoyed their time with us at QinetiQ.

"As founding members of The 5 per cent Club, an industry-led campaign designed at raising the levels of apprentices and graduates across UK industry, we believe holding events like this can really help to show young people how exciting it can be to work in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) related areas, and at companies like QinetiQ.

"We hope we can continue to inspire the next generation to be the future people who know how and look forward to continuing to work with local schools on similar activities in the future. ”

QinetiQ employs more than 10,000 people worldwide, with experts in defence and aerospace, as well as scientists and engineers.

More information about the 5 per cent club is available at 5percentclub.org.uk