An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

1999-2001: THE HAWLEY YEARS 149in Science and Technology (CREST) projects, and Young Engineers’ Clubs. The JuniorEngineers for Britain competition enabled the Neighbourhood Engineers programme to morethan double the number of primary schools with which it was involved.The Neighbourhood Engineer Programme Managers held a conference at Heriot WattUniversity, Edinburgh in October 1999 to discuss issues, share ideas and promote bestpractice.At its October 2000 meeting the BEP accepted the Brookbridge Report measuring the impactand efficiency of the NEP. A programme of improvement to the management of theprogramme was unanimously agreed. The NEP central management team took delivery ofnew communications material to assist local NEP managers in promoting the scheme toschools, engineers and employers.Two major NEP conferences were held during 2000 in Wakefield and Bournemouth coveringtopics such as the Headstart Programme, Data Protection/Child Protection Regulations andthe implication for the NEP of the new Learning and Skills Councils.Then in 2001, in line with the strategy of the new Engineering and Technology Board (ETB)– see later in this Chapter – management of the NEP was transferred to SETNET as part ofthe overall Science and Engineering Ambassadors’ initiative which SETNET had been askedto manage by the DTI.Young Engineers for BritainOver 1,400 young people aged 7 to 25 years entered models, projects and inventions for the2000 YEB competition. The National final held at the Millennium Dome in London was aprestigious showcase for their talent, ingenuity and achievement. The title ‘Young Engineerfor Britain 2000’ was won by Louise Elliott (17) from St Aidan’s and St John FisherAssociated Sixth Form College with her project ‘THE BUG’, a highly manoeuverableoutdoor buggy for a disabled child. The winners of the ‘Junior Engineers for BritainChallenge’ were Jordan Dobbie (10) and Susan Johnstone (11), both from Beith PrimarySchool, who constructed a solar powered robot. The winners received their awards fromHRH The Duke of Kent. The year 2000 competition was generously sponsored by manycompanies and received extensive media coverage on television, radio and the national press,in addition to specialist and Institution publications.The 2001 National Final was held on 10-12 September at the Business Design Centre,Islington with a top prize of £5,000 going to the winners Brendan Quinn and Edna Youngfrom St Patrick’s College, Maghers for their winning idea ‘Self Sustained Induction Deferrer’(SID). This was an automatic pod to scare away birds sitting on power lines, using powerfrom the line to propel the pod along the cable.In line with the strategy developed for the forthcoming ETB (see later in this Chapter),responsibility for the YEB programme was transferred from the EngC to anotherorganization, ‘Young Engineers’ (YE), with effect from 1 January 2002. YE ran the ‘YoungEngineers Clubs’ and was set to manage the YEB and JEB events for 2002 onward.© Engineering Council UK 2004