- Five local schools enjoyed an action-packed day
- easyJet and Surrey Police among partners present along with 40 Gatwick volunteers
- The series of roadshows will continue to its fourth roadshow in West Sussex in March
LONDON, UK, 2020-Jan-23 — /Travel PR News/ — One thousand pupils from five local schools visited a Gatwick Airport Roadshow at Ashcombe School, Dorking, yesterday – in a continuing programme across the region designed to encourage children to pursue Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) related careers.
The aim of the roadshows is to give students across the region a more hands-on experience of STEM-related careers to encourage them to consider working in the industry. They also aim to highlight jobs at the airport that may not immediately be known of by school children such as airfield engineers and external security staff.
The pupils had an eclectic choice of activities at the Dorking roadshow – the third in the series – including education on the safe flying drones from the police, presentations from easyJet cabin crew and pilots to understand their jobs better and looking for hidden items in the x-ray images, guided by the Gatwick security officers.
The roadshows are part of Gatwick’s wider community engagement programme which is designed to generate meaningful and lasting impacts on the lives of local communities, particularly the young, elderly and other vulnerable groups.
Having now been to Kent, East Sussex, and Surrey the roadshows will continue in March at Worthing College, West Sussex, to ensure the whole region benefits from the scheme.
Gatwick also recently announced that it has partnered with 15 primary schools and five local secondary schools near to Gatwick and – as part of their continued professional development – nearly 30 teachers learned new techniques that bring engineering-related projects to life so that they are better able to inspire children in the classroom and in the school curriculum.
Paula Aldridge, Community Engagement Manager, Gatwick Airport said: “It was brilliant to see the students immerse themselves in all the activities. I genuinely think the pupils’ perception of STEM subjects and careers at the airport changed for the better.
“All the activities were engaging and fun and I want to thank all of Gatwick’s business partners for helping this event happen.
“I now look forward to replicating this success in West Sussex for the fourth roadshow in the on-going programme of Gatwick’s investment in children’s education for the region.”
About Gatwick Airport
Gatwick is the UK’s second largest airport. It serves more than 230 destinations in 74 countries for 46 million passengers a year on short and long-haul point-to-point services. Gatwick is also a major economic driver and generates around 85,000 jobs nationally, with 24,000 of these located on the airport.
In May 2019, a new long-term partnership was formed with VINCI Airports who purchased a 50.01% stake in the airport. This partnership sees Gatwick Airport integrate into the network of VINCI Airports, the leading private airport operator in the world, which manages the development and operation of 46 airports across the globe. Served by around 250 airlines, VINCI Airports’ network handled 240 million passengers in 2018 – including traffic at London Gatwick. VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and operates airports, leveraging its investment capability, international network and know-how to optimise performance of existing airport infrastructure, facility extensions and new-build construction projects.
Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which manages the remaining 49.99% interest in Gatwick, is an independent infrastructure investor that makes equity investments in high quality infrastructure assets in the energy, transport and water/waste sectors. GIP has US$68 billion of Assets under Management. Its 41 portfolio companies operate in over 51 countries with more than 67,000 employees and generate annual revenues of circa US$51 billion.
For more information on VINCI Airports please visit www.vinci-airports.com and for more information on GIP please visit http://global-infra.com
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GATWICK AIRPORT PRESS OFFICE
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Source: GATWICK AIRPORT