Museum apprentices train local engineering students
The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford will be hosting a group of students from North East Wolverhampton Academy on Monday 6th February 2012 for a day of aircraft engineering training. The training day is part of the National Apprenticeship Week which runs from the 6th to 10th February 2012.
On the day ten students will be undertaking basic engineering training in hands on sessions at the Museum’s Michael Beetham Conservation Centre. The Conservation Centre has twice won the West Midlands National Apprenticeship Scheme ‘Small Employer of the Year’ award.
The students will be taught how to correctly mark, cut, drill and rivet various types of metal to help them obtain the necessary skills and capabilities to build their own aircraft. North East Wolverhampton Academy has recently made a successful bid in the Schools ‘Build-a-plane’ Challenge and will soon be taking delivery of a RANS 6 aircraft kit. The pupils will go on to build this lightweight aircraft which will eventually fly and be sold, raising funds to purchase the next aircraft kit for future students.
To assist the students during the build of the RANS 6 aircraft, instructions, advice and guidance will be provided by three of the Museum’s senior Apprentices who are all STEMNET Ambassadors (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network).
RAF Museum Training Manager, Mick Shepherd says:
“Students and staff from New Academy visited the Conservation Centre during our Open Week last November. During their visit the students were able to talk to our apprentices and see the kind of work they do. At the same time Febe Fanara, the teacher coordinating the project, realised these were precisely the skills her budding aeronautical engineers would need to get their project started. Febe contacted the MBCC and we were only too happy to help.
Senior Museum apprentice Kyle Anderton will be taking the lead on the day and will deliver the tuition and guidance along with apprentices Martin Purcell-Shaw and Nathan Pugh. During the day students and apprentices will be encouraged to interact thus providing an ideal opportunity for the students to get a feel for working and to get an understanding of the range of skills, knowledge and academic qualifications and subsequent opportunities that an apprenticeship has to offer. Further training sessions are planned as the build-a-plane project progresses.”
