Education
STEM South West is committed to supporting and sustaining the STEM talent pipeline for many years to come. Education is a core pillar of our cluster’s strategy as we believe that inspiring children and young people to explore the vast array of possibilities and opportunities that the world of STEM has to offer, will encourage them to consider a qualification and career in STEM in the future.
STEM in the World
Engineering in the World
Engineering in the World is an essential resource for Transition Year classes, designed to inspire students about the diverse and exciting careers in engineering. This book offers interactive experiments, real-world case studies, and activities that connect engineering with physics and science, making it an engaging tool for teachers. It not only supports classroom learning but also helps parents and guardians guide students in exploring future career opportunities in the dynamic field of engineering.
Engineering in the World Books Sponsorship
For Schools
Are you looking to enhance your students’ learning experience with high-quality educational resources? Your school has the opportunity to receive sponsored Class Sets (30 books) of the ‘Engineering in the World’ books, thanks to the generous support of local companies. To express your interest in being considered for this sponsorship, please fill out the form below.
For Companies
Join us in making a lasting impact on education by sponsoring Class Sets (30 books) of ‘Engineering in the World’ for schools in need. This is a unique opportunity for your company to support STEM education and inspire the next generation of engineers. To learn more about how you can become a sponsor, please fill out the form below.
STEM TY Challenge
A STEM Initiative tailored for TY students that offers real skill development, meaningful interaction with local multinationals and a practical work experience.
Your students can avail of the opportunity to work with an industry mentor, take part in an interactive skill development programme and work in a team to deliver an output which they can use in their TY portfolio and C.V.
Industry-led, action-packed interactive learning
This STEM South West initiative in collaboration with STEM Cork Life Sciences Group offers students an opportunity to understand what working in a STEM career is really like through working with world class companies right here in Cork. Through this mentorship and skill development programme, groups will get genuine insight into the wide variety of career opportunities available across STEM and how to both build and transfer communication, basic tech skills and problem-solving in a great output.
Hard Skills
Each participant will learn how to create a podcast, produce a video, design animations and put together a project plan in a Gantt format.
Soft Skills
Each participant will have lots of opportunity to develop leadership, communication, self-awareness, creativity and problem-solving abilities.
“We depend on our highly skilled STEM workforce to drive innovative science to add value for our Astellas patients. It is critical for Astellas to work with STEM South West to ensure we have a STEM talent pipeline for the long term economic growth for the region. I would encourage other companies to become members to support us in our long term commitment to improve the region’s brand to remain attractive for future investment.”
Louis Collins,
Executive Director, Kerry Operations,
Astellas Ireland Co., Ltd
Register Your Interest
Drop us a line and we’ll get back to you!
Our Industry Partners
Linking Life & Success in STEM
STEM South West’s school outreach programme ‘Linking Life with Success‘ is available to primary and post-primary schools across the South West region.
With a great lineup of guest speakers from across the STEM industry, the aim of the programme is to introduce students to the wide variety of opportunities available to them through careers and life in STEM.
A core goal of the programme is to break down the perceived stereotypes and barriers to entry into STEM careers and promote inclusion regardless of socio-economic status, gender, and educational background.
Through hearing about our different speakers journeys from leaving school to where they are today, students learn that no two paths are the same and how a qualification in STEM can present many opportunities for them to diversify and branch out to work in different sectors as they progress on their own unique and individual career path over time.
How does the programme work?
The content of each session is student led. Once a school has confirmed a date for a presentation with the programme coordinator from STEM South West, the class teacher/guidance counsellor will be sent a questionnaire for students to complete. These questionnaires help to inform the session content and to match each school with the most suitable speakers from the STEM industry. This approach, whereby our speakers tailor their presentation in advance to what the surveyed students want to discuss mean no two talks are ever exactly the same!
Each panel consists of 3 speakers. Paul O’ Brien, the programme coordinator, begins each session by providing an introduction and broad overview of the vast opportunities available in STEM. Following this introduction, two speakers from the STEM industry talk about their career and unique life journey from when they finished school to where they are now, including what helped them to choose different school subjects for their Leaving Certificate and/or higher education course(s) along the way. Where possible, each speaker will tailor their discussion to the topics of interest identified by students in the pre-event questionnaire. Each panellist will speak for approximately 10 – 12 minutes, with polls and spot questions included to enhance student engagement throughout.
At the end of the session, students have an opportunity to ask questions of the panellists which almost always leads to an open and engaging discussion.
Who can participate?
This programme is available to primary school students as well as all classes in post-primary education. STEM South West are also looking to make this programme available to parents, to promote awareness, not only for their children but also for themselves of the possibilities, entry mechanisms and upskilling initiatives available to pursue a rewarding career in STEM.
What do schools think?
“Working with Paul O’Brien to deliver the ‘Linking Life with Success’ presentation to our students was a pleasure. I believe one aspect that contributed to its success was the work undertaken with students beforehand. Paul took the information gained from this work and designed the workshop around that.”
St Brogan’s College, Bandon
Want to find out more?
If your school would like to find out more about this programme, please let us know by filling out our contact form below.