The charity Greenpower Education Trust announces, at its 2015 International Final, three STEM award programmes that have been developed in association with key educational partners for the 2015/16 academic year.
Greenpower strives to inspire the next generation of engineers by offering students the chance to design, build and race their own sustainably-powered cars.
Now fully recognising and rewarding the students that participate in Greenpower, pupils have the opportunity to register for each scheme in isolation, or any combination, choosing from AQA exam board credentials, Industrial Cadets and CREST (British Science Association).
In most instances by completing one scheme many of the requirements for another will also have been met.
The AQA exam board has created the unique AQA Greenpower Award Scheme offering certificates in design, manufacture and systems available at Goblins (9-11 year olds), IET Formula 24 (11-16 year olds) and IET Formula 24+ levels (16-25 year olds).
Students will be teacher assessed against a set of learning objectives and if deemed to meet the criteria they can be awarded the relevant certificate. There is no limit as to the number of awards students undertake. On satisfactory completion of the scheme, students will receive AQA exam board certificates co-branded with Greenpower Education Trust’s main partners – Siemens, IET and Silverline.
Industrial Cadets now provide a Silver Industrial Cadets programme in relation to Greenpower activities. Students need to produce a portfolio to evidence their participation and demonstrate that they have met the requirements for the programme. As well as participating in the hands-on Greenpower project, students will be expected to investigate career pathways and undertake some work with a company that may well be their team sponsor.
CREST recognises Greenpower as a partner at Bronze, Silver and Mega star level. Students can be signed off by their teachers for the Bronze award but at Silver they will need to produce a portfolio to evidence their participation and demonstrate that they have met the criteria for the programme which will then be externally assessed. Students will receive CREST certificates, as long as the meet all criteria.
Greenpower Education Trust CEO, Jeremy Way, said: “It’s an exciting time for us as we announce three academic partners now offering our students awards that reflect how credible their engineering experience with Greenpower is.
“Qualifications are so important for young people to be able to break into any industry. We are extremely proud to provide official academic award schemes to show the true value of practical hands-on STEM education – which is exactly what Greenpower gives its students and believes in.
“Our aim as a charity is to inspire and educate future engineers, to help equip them with the relevant skills for working in the engineering industry, and to assist in filling the skills gap in engineering which the UK currently faces.”
