News: Suppliers
13 September 2024
CSA Catapult and UK Electronics Skills Foundation coordinating Welsh Sparc bursaries
As part of the ‘Spark their imagination; power their future’ project funded by Innovate UK and run by Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult and the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), a total of 24 Year 13 students from across Wales have been awarded bursaries to provide support while they complete electronics-related degrees and help them start careers in technology.
The bursary program offers students financial support while at university, access to professional mentoring and learning and development opportunities.
The Welsh Sparc bursary provides £1000 to Year 13 pupils who have accepted their place to study electronics-related degrees. A one-off bursary of £1500 will also be awarded for personal and professional development after a student’s first year of study.
Between 2012 and 2021, the number of Welsh students studying an Electronics and Electrical Engineering (EEE) degree fell by a third, from 180 to 120. “Going on to further study can be daunting. Financial pressure can cause added stress and be a huge deterrent,” notes Alex Leadley, Skills Academy manager at CSA Catapult. “Our sector is facing a workforce shortage. We need many engineers with a variety of skills and capabilities from all backgrounds, so schemes and interventions like ours which encourage students are incredibly important,” he adds.
The Welsh Sparc bursary aims to encourage more young people in Wales to consider a career in electronics. Electrical engineers are in high demand as technology plays an increasingly important role in areas such as smartphone technologies, aerospace, robotics and artificial intelligence.
“This program is designed to create a pipeline of future talent into our sector from Wales,” says UKESF’s CEO Stewart Edmondson.
The inaugural 2024/25 Welsh Sparc Award winners recently attended a celebration event at CSA Catapult’s Innovation Centre in South Wales to learn more about the support that their bursaries offer and the career opportunities ahead of them. The Welsh Sparc Award winners received advice from UKESF alumni, spoke to engineers working at CSA Catapult, and toured labs developing technology for real-world applications like electric vehicles, clean energy and 5G communications.
‘Spark their imagination; power their future’ is one of many interventions that CSA Catapult’s Skills Academy develops, to bring together education providers, industry, government, charities and parents to inspire and develop the next generation of scientists and engineers.
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