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The award was presented for the company’s commitment to the education of engineers of the future by providing support to schools, colleges and universities.
RS plays a highly active role in promoting engineering to young people right across the age spectrum: from primary school throughout the academic years, as well as those just embarking on an engineering career.
The electronics industry in the UK faces an annual shortage of skilled engineers, and RS has foreseen its own potential to influence engineering uptake to prevent an even greater skills gap in the future, especially in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects.
During the course of the year, RS invested in educational initiatives amounting to more than £500,000 per annum, and participated in a wide range of activities to promote engineering in education. Central to its educational strategy is the recognition that businesses need to work with the government, education sector and training providers, as well as organisations such as the CBI, STEM and the IET.
The educational programmes initiated by RS over the past 12 months, which have earned the company this accolade, include: working in partnership with STEM Learning to recruit STEM ambassadors; launching innovative campaigns such as ‘RS Live’, a ‘roadshow in a truck’ that tours schools and communities across the UK and Europe; and the RS University programme, an initiative for higher-level academia that targets 18- to 24-year olds.
“We are extremely proud to have won the Elektra 2017 Educational Support Award,” said Thomas Nowak, President, Product and Supplier Management at RS. “It is a major endorsement of the company’s ongoing efforts to support educational programmes and nurture the vast range of possibilities offered by engineering and electronics design in the minds of the engineers of tomorrow.”
