Inspiring young people in Newham through a visit to Thames Refinery

Inspiring young people in Newham through a visit to Thames Refinery

Last week Tate & Lyle Sugars hosted 120 primary school children from Year 3 and Year 5 at Keir Hardie Primary at our Thames Refinery, complementing their learning about engineering and ethical business during the World of Work week at school.

The focus of last week’s visit of Year 3 children was Engineering, and the children, aged eight and nine, toured our engineering workshop, control room, raw sugar store, and saw our robots in action in one of our warehouses. They met chemical, structural, computer and software engineers who gave the children an overview of their job and role at the Refinery and answered lots of questions. They also heard from two of our engineering apprentices, Dan and Joe about why they wanted to be engineers and what subjects to study at school for a career in engineering.

We were also pleased to host the Year 5 class for a Dragon’s Den session as part of their World of Work Week. Having learned about what makes a business ethical at school, groups of students presented their ideas for an ‘ethical business’ to our panel of Ethical Business ‘Dragons’, who included Director of Sugar Ethics at Tate & Lyle Sugars Julia Clark, and Marketing Manager Rhian Moore. The presentations tested the students’ public speaking skills and their ability to handle questions under pressure, which they did admirably. Certificates were awarded to all groups for their efforts, including Best Presentation, Most Unique Invention, Most Ethical Business and an individual award for the Best Public Speaking Skills. Students also had the opportunity to grill the Dragons on their careers to date, and why they love what they do.

Tate & Lyle Sugars is committed to inspiring young people in Newham, and hosts visits from local primary and secondary schools in collaboration with Inspire! ebp. Children and young people can only aspire to what they know exists, and we aim to bring jobs and careers to life through a visit to our Thames Refinery.

We were delighted to have inspired the children to consider a career in engineering, and helped them consider what makes an ethical business.