EIGHT further education students from Northern Ireland will spend two weeks at a prestigious Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) institute in America this summer.
The students will take part in the FRONTIERS programme at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts. WPI is a private, high class STEM university primarily devoted to the instruction and research of technical arts and applied sciences.
They were selected following participation in the annual Colleges’ NI Business and Education through Skills and Training, or BEST Awards. They celebrate the creative and innovative talent within Northern Ireland’s six regional colleges.
Employment and Learning Minister Stephen Farry said: “Following a visit to Belfast by an American delegation in January this year, led by the US Department of State, I announced that I would strive to build partnerships and avail of opportunities with our counterparts in the US. This is the beginning of this process.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for these students and we hope that this will be the beginning of a long relationship with Worcester Polytechnic Institute and other further and higher educational establishments in the Massachusetts area. The knowledge and experience that these eight young people can bring back home will be invaluable in their STEM studies and careers.”
The focus of the FRONTIERS programme is on students learning current laboratory techniques and exploring unsolved problems across a wide spectrum of engineering, mathematics, science and robotics disciplines. Four of the local students attending will also take part in the Women’s Leadership Academy strand of the programme.
The BEST Awards were created to support students in their project based learning throughout the year and showcase entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in STEM across the further education sector.
Four of the six local colleges are represented on the visit to WPI — Belfast Metropolitan College, Northern Regional College, North West Regional College and South East Regional College.