Shannon Airport To Host The Explore Engineering Showcase

0:00Now Shannon Airport's Departures Hall is set to be transformed once again this week as it hosts the Explorer engineering showcase for the fifth consecutive year It's going to be happening this Thursday the event is going to bring together around 2000 senior cycle students along with parents teachers and guidance counselors to meet over 60 engineering Companies from across the Midwest. It's into its 11th year and it's all about connecting young people real world opportunities from apprenticeships and further education to third level pathways and giving them a hands-on look at the Innovation happening right under a doorstep and to tell us more about what students can expect. I'm joined now by two guests David personal technical support leader at luftanza Technic one of the key engineering employers in the region and managing manager of further education and training at Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board and chairperson of Explore Engineering Eimer Barofi and David and Eimer very good morning to both of you. Morning. Thanks very much for being with us. First before we get to the Explore engineering showcase to be here at the Shannon Recruit and Fair David tons happening. Maybe you guys are represented here I presume. We're not represented here today, but it's fantastic to see the crowd here.

1:01It's a great pose as you say to Ellen and generally some fantastic companies on display here today. And at the very least Eimer we're getting great sun in from behind me here. Yeah it's great to be here. By the end of this interview I'll have a tan. It's a great morning. It's lovely to see the blue skies and we have a stand here at Limerick and Clare Education Training Board and I suppose we're looking at the whole pathways to apprenticeship and the many opportunities that are out there. And that door tells nicely in with the whole industry grouping which is Explore Engineering in Thursday. And so yeah it's great to see such a big crowd here this morning as I say it's a lovely morning for us. Talk to us a bit about Explore Engineering showcase then. Being running for quite a number of years obviously extremely popular. What are the benefits of the event? Sure well, Explore Engineering we're 11 years old this year and we have 2000 school children hopefully coming through the George and Shanne airport in Thursday evening. So Explore Engineering is a consortium of education partners and industry partners and it's industry led which is very important because this region has a huge

2:07manufacturing base and there are many many opportunities in engineering careers and there are many pathways and that's what's really important for parents this morning are people who are interested. There are many pathways in engineering careers there's the apprenticeship pathway there's the higher education pathway there's going working in industry and being upskilled while you're in industry. So the Explore Engineering piece is a really good showcase it's bigger than a showcase it's for engineering consortium but one of the events is this showcase which we do on Thursday evening and Dave has been involved for years and it's really important because we've come please like the fans are involved we've element six involved with EI electronics we've got small media enterprises we've got multi-nationals all all the significant engineering employers absolutely so and really the idea on Thursday it's free parking come along between five and nine o'clock five days admissions and there's a lot of interactive stuff with robots there's actually building these things you can do to see and touch and feel engineering and love fans actually have

3:12some really hands-on stuff at their stands. Yeah it's a unique event and I suppose nobody is selling anything at the event everybody's there to showcase their engineering products and their careers the types of careers that can get because lots of graduate engineers understand so we're encouraging not just four to 50 year students families younger children to come along those loads of activities to do in the airport as Eam are said there's going to be free parking that's a really important feature to encourage people to come and historically I suppose they've been 2000 people and more at the event so there will be a bit like here today now they'll be a great excitement and a great pause and it is engineers week as well so it's important to stress that is engineers week there's lots of activities going on through the county a lot of the primary schools have activities going on engineers Ireland have a lot of resources that they're provided to schools so there it's an important week for engineering and for engineers this was tomorrow's world engineering day as well so there's a lot of focus on so to have this event in the in the

4:13Shannon Airport I think it's fantastic for the week to send us as well I think it's important and Eam are David said it's not about selling something but is it more about planting a seed in the mind of those young people who maybe have it's whatever degree they're interested in engineering they meet companies like Lufthansa technique and then it doesn't it doesn't hurt to see robots robots are cool yeah and gets them kind of interested and maybe pursuing that as a potential long-term career oh it is absolutely about planting the seed because what it's what we're saying is you know come along and see the different aspects people think of engineering through one prison sometimes but it's such a vast you know career it's such a vast area that you can work in and we inspire women in engineering that's one of our other events we're trying to get girls to look at engineering careers we're trying to really promote the fact that you can look at it through the apprenticeship way the Rosertrule is a really good example she talks about being an electrician and now after a few years to come back to college and do electrical engineering so there are many different ways

5:15that you can carve out your pathway in engineering and you know it's interesting about families coming you know bring the 10-year-old and bring the 16-year-old because you're planting the seed with the primary school student as well to look at STEM to be interactive to look at the different things they can do and that's that's the real knob of explore engineering it's not just going in and looking it's going in and doing and by doing and by seeing and it's also all the young engineers and apprentices I'm not being ages to this but youngsters listen to 24-year-olds and 25-year-olds and say look this is what I did look how exciting it is I'm traveling with it look how I'm learning to fix make, bend, break all of that that's that's what it's about and I guess as well David many students might not even realize the range of careers that are available within engineering you know I'm sure it's of tansitecnic because all sorts of roles there for for future careers you can go through the health but A to Z and you'll get an engineering profession for each letter it's extraordinary and there's a wide range and in in love tans as you said we have design

6:19engineers with material engineers with production engineers there's there's loads of different types of engineers even within an even more than one company so there's lots of roots in engineering now as the aimer said there's the apprenticeship roots you can do with as a mature student there's loads of options so I think the explore engineering event is really for everybody and engineering is for everybody as Imran has said there's women engineering we're encouraging girls to get in get involved there's fun and interactive stuff to do but there's careers for everybody you know and it's really a boom time for engineering in the Midwest I think yes over the last few years if the look at the engineers Ireland annual bram her fort she's like 2023 24 25 8000 7000 6000 jobs there's about 6000 graduates coming out every year so there's more jobs in the graduates who are coming out and it's really difficult as well to get experienced engineers so there is opportunities there within the space and I suppose you can see it here today they just see the companies here actively looking for talent in the region

7:22that is a very attractive selling point more roles than actually graduates coming out and so Imran is free parking we mentioned free parking is registration required for if you know just come along we've removed all the barriers of the event bright and having to register come along with your family your friends your niece your nephew and I also may just say we also have huge openings for newcomers and we've got so newcomers in the country and people who have qualifications and technical qualifications from other countries there may be sort of adolescents to where they can go now that they're living here or what sort of facilities are available to them and you know through coos through you out through the education training boards there's lots of supports around ESOL language around helping people get into a career that maybe they were in in their previous you know jurisdiction or country or wherever they lived so it's really it's for senior cycle students for parents for anybody with an interest those returning to careers come along and see and it's interactive in the door free parking will

8:23meet you we'll help you we'll talk to you the whole lot the robots will talk to you as well it's a part of the colleges will be there the universities will be there engineers Ireland we'll be there the engineers there in Torment region and we'll be there so there's lots of information opportunities there for people who are unsure about what they'd like to do and I think between meeting all the graduates engineers understands there's there's a there's a lot of potential opportunities there I think there you go folks plenty to sell it to you there that's the explore engineering showcase happening at the Descartes Hall in Shannon Airport this Thursday my thanks to Amber Brofrey from the LCETB and from Lufthansa Technique David Persil guys thank you very much hope Thursday goes swimmingly thanks for joining us here at the Shannon recruitment fair