Last week I cohosted an enormous engineering fair at leading motorsport company Xtrac in Theale. Richard Benyon the MP for Newbury and I wanted to mark 2018 as the year of engineering and so we organised an event that would showcase some brilliant local companies to teenagers from across the two constituencies. Peter Digby, the MD of Xtrac and a constituent, lent is his enormous new factory and we hoped that the event would trigger their curiosity and encourage them to consider the industry as a career option, making GCSE and A level results as appropriate. We were joined by local companies RE Thompson from Whitchurch who design and manufacture parts for fast jets, and SMI International who do very clever things with submarines. Big local employer Ocado also had a stand to showcase their amazing robotics which quietly whirr away on the Walworth Trading estate in Andover. All in all we had about 400 young people through on the day (with transport costs covered by TVBC) and it was an enormous success. Many thanks to all involved.
Engineering Fair
