Meet The Students

Last year, Curricula and Co partnered with St Ambrose high school in Manchester to give four budding engineers the chance to pool their developing skills in the creation of the Platform Project, a collaboration of local independent businesses in the heart of Manchester Airport.

These four amazing students you will be meeting over the next few weeks  study engineering in a new programme called DEC, and are putting their skills and talents to work in the real world.
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We got the chance to chat to them all about their time on the project, and what they have been getting up to. This week, we are pleased to introduce Bobby...

BOBBY

What are you interested in and what are you doing at school?
I’m really interested in engineering. I picked DEC in year ten, and I’m still doing it in college, along with film and business studies.

When did you know you wanted to do DEC?
At my old high school, it was not an option, so here, I looked into it and got more interested the more I looked into it. ​

Any areas of engineering that Stand out to you?
Digital and aerospace. Digital involves using the latest software like Revit and Bim. You can use them to make virtual 3D models of buildings. It’s more of a modern way of designing than paper sketching. It’s a lot easier to make 3D models to bring to clients so they can see the building more clearly as if they were walking around the real thing. You can also change things quickly. I’m doing a lot of that now. I looked at the work going on at St. Peter's Square using Revit during the DEC course. I am using it in my work experience at Laing O Rourke to look at different sights, e g St Peter’s Square. I am really familiar with it now. ​

Tell me about your work experience at Laing O’Rourke
I do loads of things in the company. Last week, I worked with a guy called Matt, who is the Revit engineer. Next week I could be in the sustainability or HR department. It's three months, so I am getting a general overview of how things are done.

Future plans?
I want a career in engineering. I will probably need a university degree. ​

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What are your views on the Platform project?
One day I was in a DEC lesson and teacher chose us to do it. I didn't know what it was until it was introduced. It’s very exciting. I was nervous but it was great once I got into it. Our contribution will be made into a reality. In the lessons in college, I'm learning lots of great stuff, but there's no real chance to practice it in real life. Doing this project allows us to actually see our work as it happens, which is amazing!

​What is your specific role in the project?
Researching the businesses involved in the project. Finding out what resources are needed. Big Grille Style needed places to store meat. They need special fridges and we had to build this into the design. They also need big grills. The coffee shop needed places to store their products. I made a 3D model of our idea on Revit to show the directors. It was so much better and more easy to visualise than the paper drawings!

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Tune in for more next week when we meet student number two, Shervin.....