Case Study: Laura Bingham and Technical Fibre Products Ltd
Laura Bingham is a student at Kirkbie Kendal School, in Kendal, Cumbria. During summer 2008 she completed a Nuffield Bursary Project working at Technical Fibre Products in Kendal; which also contributed to Laura gaining a CREST Gold Award. The project and subsequent awards were facilitated by the Cumbria STEM Centre Ltd, the current Stempoint and STEM Ambassadors contract holder for Cumbria.
Laura says: ‘During my time at TFP I worked on a project exploring novel fibres for hydrogen fuel cell applications, and it was excellent. Honestly I can say I have had a brilliant time, I feel like a more confident, strong, and determined person. I now have some knowledge of what a career in Science, particularly research, is like, and I have to say I liked what I saw. It’s great to really know what a career is like before you get into it.
I think that this experience will also help my application to university. I believe it is experiences like this that really make your application, be it to a University or an employer, stand out, and I would highly recommend the Nuffield Bursary to both pupils and employers as it really helps bridge the gap between school and the world of industry.’
Michael Jeschke, Research Manager at TFP said: ‘We would highly recommend both the Nuffield Bursary and Gold Crest Award scheme as they benefit both the students involved and the host company. They enable businesses to get involved and develop and encourage the next generation of potential scientists, whilst also generating some valuable results from the projects set.
It has been a pleasure to mentor Laura throughout her project, where she has demonstrated excellent scientific knowledge and aptitude, organisational skills, confidence and adaptability whilst completing some valuable work for the company.’
Anne Duffy, Laura’s Physics teacher at Kirkbie Kendal School, commented ‘I wish you could offer this amazing opportunity to more students. The skills and confidence gained by students taking part in projects such as the Nuffield Bursaries are beyond comparison with anything they can be offered in school or college. I know that a previous student would not have got into his first choice course at Loughborough without the experience gained from his Nuffield Bursary project with Technical Fibre Products last year; it makes students stand out from the best of the best’
Laura was selected to represent the North West at the Young Scientists & Engineers ‘Big Bang’ Fair that took place in London in March 2009.
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Technical Fibre Products has 5 Science & Engineering Ambassadors and have provided a variety of Nuffield Bursary and CREST Gold Award as well as supporting a Science Club at The Queen Katherine School in Kendal.
Cumbria STEM Centre Ltd. nominated Technical Fibre Products Ltd for the STEM Ambassadors ‘Most Dedicated Company’ Award 2009. TFP were judged to be one of the top five companies in the UK in this category and were presented with an award at a celebration event at the House of Lords in May 2009.
PROMOTING SCIENCE