MP announces constituency winner in national schools manufacturing competition
Tim Farron is proud to announce Lauren Hine from Kirkbie Kendal School as the winning pupil in the local round of the We Made It! competition, a national competition aimed at getting young people thinking about careers in manufacturing.
Hundreds of young people across the country have been busy designing gadgets and gizmos as part of an exciting competition which will see two lucky winners turn their idea into a real-life prototype. We Made It!" invited 13 - 16 year olds throughout the UK to let their imagination run wild and design a brand new product, whether it be a gadget to help with homework or a piece of sports equipment to make PE more fun.
The idea behind the competition is that the children get to see that manufacturing is about design and creativity as well as hands-on making of the products. From fashion and video game consoles to cars and airplanes, there are many varied industries with manufacturing at their heart and in which exciting career opportunities exist.
Lauren's entry is one of 32 shortlisted entries selected from over 360 entries, with local MP's choosing their winning entry to go through to the next stage of the competition. They will now be invited to an exclusive awards reception in the Houses of Parliament on 29th January 2013 to meet with Tim Farron. The winning entry will also be put before a panel of manufacturing experts later in November, who will whittle the shortlist down to six national entries and select overall finalists, with the chance to help prototype their designs at the UK's first Fab Lab, a digital fabrication laboratory based in Manchester.
Commenting today Tim said "This competition is a great way of encouraging young people to think about being involved in manufacturing as well as supporting the UK manufacturing sector. I was really impressed with the standard of entries we received and the imaginative and creative ideas the students developed. Lauren's entry in particular was clever, different and something I would like to use myself! I am thankful to all the students and schools that took part in the competition and congratulate them on their inventive entries"