Contest judges seek talent for tomorrow’s world

Representatives of the judging organisations of the Bright Spark Awards have spoken of the need to find fresh recruits for science-related businesses during the competition’s spring launch.

Bright Sparks 2019 - News Launch from Inspire Schools on Vimeo.

They met at Discovery Park in Sandwich, where they were treated to a tour of the Community Lab, a partnership helping to develop science educators and involving the park, Pfizer and Canterbury Christ Church University.

Entries are now open for the awards, which encourage teams of pupils to use cross-curricular skills in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects in practical projects. Entries can be schoolwork or science club projects.

Shortlisted teams will present their work to the judges at a Dragons’ Den-style competition final in July.

Discovery Park’s Kimberley Anderson praised the “special” awards for their ability to inspire young people with a passion for STEM subjects, and said: “I think for the dragons who are judging the event, it’s really special too, to see what the next generation are actually doing.”

Ian Hoare of BAE Systems added: “We see Bright Sparks as a great opportunity to meet new people and potentially have them join us on our apprenticeship schemes or through some of the graduate placements or summer schemes we do.”

And Gary Smith of Global Associates said: “We recognise that there’s a skills gap in the future of engineering and we want students to unlock any potential that maybe they didn’t even realise they had.”

The other judging organisations for the awards are Atkins Global, Megger, Pfizer, The ITL Group, EduKit, Highways England, Kent Renewable Energy and Golding Vision.

The awards are organised by the KM Charity Team and open to Primary and Secondary schools, and there are three categories:

• innovation
• investigation
• invention.

Judges will select teams to receive unique experience prizes while the overall winning group will receive a trophy and £500.

The deadline for submitting entries is noon on 31 May. For more information or to enter, visit the Bright Sparks website

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Contact Details

Hannah Hawksworth
Telephone: 08442 640291
Email: hawksworth@thekmgroup.co.uk