Future Pathways Class of ’23 Graduate

A group of our Year 9 students have recently completed their ‘Future Pathways’ project, and were presented with their certificates earlier this term.

Future Pathways was set up a few years ago with funding through local policing and Morgan Sindall. It is aim at raising the aspirations of young people in West Cumbria and encouraging them to consider a future in the engineering sector.

Mr Willamson, Learning Mentor for Year 9 put together a group of twelves Year 9 students to take part in the project, over a number of weeks. 

The first sessions looked at breaking the ice and getting the students to think like a team (as well as a bit of health competition). They were given dried spaghetti and marshmallows and had to construct the tallest tower, it ended in a rather sticky mess

The following two weeks took place at the Whitehaven Harbour Project where they got to have a go at indoor climbing, archery and canoeing, as well as orienteering. These were all designed to push the students out of their comfort zones and get them to challenge themselves and each other. The aim of these sessions was to build confidence and self-esteem as well as communication and teamwork, all vital skills in the world of work.

The penultimate session was titled Scaffolding The World and had the students working in groups to design and build a model of a scaffold to hold up the earth. This was ran by Kaefer, and each member of the team had to take on a role eg. Designer, finance, health and safety or project manager and work together to successfully complete the challenge.

Throughout all the challenges, the students got to talk to volunteers about their work and were able to showcase their own skills. That afternoon, the whole group went out on to Whitehaven Harbour and did a community litter pick, which was much appreciated by residents and visitors.

The final part of the Future Pathways programme involved the students putting together a presentation – to be presented to invited guests. This highlighted all the challenges they had taken part in, and gave a fantastic example of how their confidence had grown over the last few week.

The presentation concluded with a graduation where they received their certificates. Well done to all of the students involved!