This Year Open Doors took place during November, aiming to provide the opportunity for young people to experience real workplaces, see them in operation and gain a practical insight into the wide variety of careers available in the East Sussex area.

This year Drallim opened its doors again to schools to show young people what is out there when it comes to a career in engineering. Three schools participated this year, Hastings Academy, Robertsbridge Academy and Bexhill Academy, each bringing 7-13 pupils. They listened keenly to a presentation given about Drallim, with a bit of background on the companies beginnings through to and a look at current projects, followed by an introduction to some of our products, and then they went on a fun packed tour to see Production, Electrical Design, and the Mechanical Design departments.

The feedback was very positive with many students saying they enjoyed it and all the teachers were very impressed with our operation. Hopefully we have helped inspire a few new budding engineers. A huge thank you to all those those involved.

Continuing with Drallim’s dream of inspiring the next generation of engineers, we have also been working with Ark Helenswood girls Academy to run a STEM club. 5 of our staff are STEM ambassadors and 3 of them have been going up to Helenswood every other week to help the students build go karts that they hope to race at the end of the year.

Cheryl Smith, Careers Coordinator at Bexhill Academy had this to say:

“Thank you so much for opening your doors to our students this morning.  It was a fascinating insight into what engineers do and the different areas that you work in.  I think we all came away with a much better understanding about what engineering is. We had some really positive feedback from the students who enjoyed “looking at all the stuff they make and have made.” And they said “The visit was fun and useful and helpful too”

Cheryl said “The Open Doors visits are such a good way for students to get an insight into the world of work and we are very grateful to all the businesses that facilitate these visits.”

Dave Mooney the Managing Director at Drallim added “It is great to see more females taking an interest in STEM subjects and moving into career areas where they are currently under represented and yet able to make such a strong contribution.”