Weydon was happy to welcome back ex-student, Harry Felton, who returned to school from Bristol University to deliver an engaging and informative careers talk about engineering.

His message was that engineering is everywhere and that engineers are everyone. Looking at a photo of the tennis star Raffa Nadal, the students were encouraged to explore the reality that everything they looked at required engineering, from the racquet, the trainers, Hawkeye, the breathable sports clothing to the mechanics of the roof over the court.

Harry explained that engineering is varied and diverse and that engineers have to come up with innovative solutions to complex life challenges. His talk covered renewable energy, AI, space, mobile technology, bridges, medicine and aeronautical engineering.

He stressed the importance of being resilient as engineers must test and retest their ideas to ensure they work and that maths and physics are used and applied on a daily basis.

Harry was enthusiastic about how varied his experience has been. He has been fortunate to spend a year out from university working for Rolls Royce and many of his peers have had similar high-profile placements with organisations such as F1, EA, Google, Jaguar and GCHQ.

Engineering is a career that lends itself to apprenticeship training which is just one of many routes into the industry.

Harry was also keen to stress how rewarding engineering is. There is a high degree of job satisfaction, the salaries are competitive, engineers are in high demand and it offers the opportunity for global travel.

He feels strongly that what he does changes things and has a massive effect. For example, if he can make an engine 10 per cent more efficient it will have a positive knock-on effect on the environment.

Harry also spoke about his experience with the Formula Student programme, Europe’s most established educational engineering competition. Backed by industry and high-profile engineers such as patron Ross Brawn OBE, the competition aims to develop enterprising and innovative young engineers and encourage more young people to take up a career in engineering.

Harry has been involved in all aspects of the design, development and building of the Bristol Formula Student race car which he will also get to drive at the Silverstone racetrack. This car will accelerate from 0-60mph in 1.5 seconds.

The students who attended the talk were fortunate to be able to handle the parts for the race car and asked many questions in their desire to learn more about the competition.