Cohort 3 student Sarah Farthing visited her secondary school, Rugby High School, to take part in their annual careers speed dating event, which took place in March 2018. Alongside Sarah, there were 19 other external participants, mostly former pupils from a wide range of career backgrounds.

Sarah, an engineering student, represented the CDT and in total spoke to approximately 50 students. She encouraged them to consider a career in engineering and explained how research is conducted in an academic setting. She discussed the skills and qualifications needed but focused on the exciting opportunities that engineering and the field of sustainability offers. Engineering has not been a common choice at Rugby High, particularly as the main school (Years 7-11) is a girls’ school.

Rugby High was traditionally a girls' school and Sarah was particularly enthused to meet the students and present engineering as an accessible and exciting career path. With governmental schemes such as the Year of Engineering, it is hoped that there will be even more interest in the future.

Sarah enjoyed her time connecting with these younger students and seeing how her school had developed in the past 10 years. The students benefited too, with some of their comments displayed on the school's website include the following:

“It gave me reassurance that you don’t actually have to know what you want to do now.”

“It provided insight into different careers and the steps people took to get there.”

“I find it interesting to see all these types of jobs I didn’t know about.”