McLaren Racing continues its mission to promote STEM careers among young people by sponsoring five successful students from The Smallpeice Trust’s Arkwright Engineering Scholarship programme.
Funding will go to the five scholars and their schools, enabling the purchase of study resources and equipment to facilitate their development as budding engineers.
The investment comes through McLaren Racing Engage, which is an alliance with the brand’s partners to implement initiatives to diversify talent in motorsport.
Scholars will have mentors from the McLaren Formula 1 engineering team, who will give them an insight into life as an engineer and provide them with the skills required for STEM careers. One mentor is Chris Wilson, Composite Design Engineer, McLaren Racing, who will guide the students.
The scholars got the chance to meet their mentors in person when McLaren Racing recently invited them for a tour of the McLaren Technology Centre, F1 driver, Daniel Ricciardo also made an appearance.
The Arkwright Engineering scholarship targets students aged 16 with an interest in engineering and encourages them to pursue their career goal. Successful candidates receive support through their A-Levels, Scottish Highers or equivalent qualifications. They have awarded over 6,000 scholarships to date.
The scholarship is the second initiative from McLaren Racing’s partnership with The Smallpeice Trust through the McLaren Racing Engage Alliance, which aims to invest in and support future STEM talent.
The Smallpeice Trust is a children’s education charity providing STEM-based scholarships, programmes and interactive days to get young people from all backgrounds, including females, ethnic minority and disadvantaged students, into engineering.
Rebecca Constable, Director, People Experience, McLaren Racing, said: “Being able to provide mentor support and offering real-life work experience is something which we are particularly proud of. When we announced that we would be partnering with the programme, we were overwhelmed with support from our engineering teams and uncovered that we have several Arkwright Engineering Scholarship alumni working within McLaren Racing, so it seems fitting that they were selected as mentors to support the next generation of talent.”
Dr Kevin P Stenson, CEO, The Smallpeice Trust, said: “As part of McLaren Racing’s commitment to their Arkwright Engineering Scholars, it was invaluable for these brilliant future engineers to visit the home of McLaren Racing and meet their mentors. If we are to retain brilliant and diverse young people aged 16 to 18 in the engineering talent pipelines, it is essential that they experience cutting edge engineering in action and meet relevant engineering role models.”
Chris Wilson, Composite Design Engineer, McLaren Racing said: “I decided to become a mentor as back when I was studying, I went through the Arkwright Engineering Scholarship programme myself and it was great for me. It helped with my interview technique which ultimately led to securing my role at McLaren Racing. Over the next two years, we’ll be working with the students, showing them what McLaren is all about and helping prepare them for a future as a professional engineer”.
More information about the Smallpeice Trust can be found here.
