Six of our Year 12 students are starting their adventure with the Industrial Cadets Gold Award. Previously known as The Engineering Education Scheme, the initiative is a 6-month long programme designed to give Year 12 students a realistic insight in to a career in engineering. Students are grouped into teams of 4-6 and commit over 50 hours to the project over 16 weeks. Supported by their teachers, they will also partner with a STEM company that provides mentor support working on a real life project, challenging the students to design a solution to a particular problem. There will also be virtual webinars, project management, higher education and a company tour. The team will then present their idea to a panel of assessors online.

Our students had to choose from a selection of design challenges, and have chosen the South Dock Bridge.

The South Dock Bridge Challenge

Significant new developments on the Isle of Dogs will generate crossing demand. The new Crossrail station (Elizabeth line) will attract more pedestrians from the area and there is a need to improve access to South Quay DLR station. So there will be a need to provide for a new crossing to accommodate the predicted increase in pedestrian traffic. The new bridge is likely to become one of the busiest pedestrian bridges in London. The bridge must open to provide a 25 m wide navigable channel for taller boats to pass through.

NHEHS has a strong track record in the EES, winning the Prize for Best Contribution to Business in 2017 with our work on the Crossrail West stations, under the mentoring of Network Rail and Taylor Woodrow. Last year, our team of engineers walked away with two out of three available awards – People’s Choice Award and the EES Innovation Award – for their work with industry mentors, Arcadis UK, to come up with a design for crossing the widest Fjord in Norway as part of the super-highway that Norway is going to build.

We look forward to seeing how our 2020-21 team get on!