On Wednesday 25th September at Chelmsford City Racecourse, CSES members Chris Neale and Ed Bye promoted the Society and in general STEM career paths at the Braintree Careers Fair.
The event was for students in their GCSE year (age 15/16) to help them decide on options for college or 6th Form as well as provide information on future career choices and paths such as apprenticeship or university route.
Eight schools in the Braintree area attended for an hour throughout the day, with a total student count of around 1500!
Over 100 exhibitors were present in the very large marquee within the grounds. To provide an opportunity for students to visit all exhibitors in each half of the marque, each school spent 30 minutes in each half of the marquee.
On the CSES stand were a number of exhibits including a micro-controller-based line-following robot. There was also a range of literature explaining "engineering", career route maps and further information about CSES.
It was a very busy day, with many interesting conversations and several in-depth discussions with students and some teachers. A large number of students did not have fixed ideas for the future and were looking for options to consider, this may not be surprising when one considers that this year group were just starting their secondary school education when Covid lockdowns occurred.