Today colleagues from NCFE are volunteering as PIE’Oneers in 3 schools across the North East, as part of the Big Pie Friday Challenge.
The Big Pie Friday Challenge is the largest ever Enterprise Education Challenge, part of the Primary Inspiration through Enterprise (PIE) project. Over 1000 pupils aged 9-11 from 250 schools across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland are taking part and competing against each other. The project is aimed at educating young people on enterprise and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects, and inspiring them to pursue a career in these growing areas.
This morning, pupils from Wallsend Jubilee Primary School have been taking part in the engineering challenge, where they’ve been building gliders against the clock and compete to build the glider that flies the furthest indoors and outdoors.
The 5 schools that are quickest at completing the task in each area will move onto the second stage, where they’ll take part in a full day of enterprising. The pupils will create and sell a product, supported by local businesses, and will be judged on the profit they make.
CBE Founder and Chair of Asian Business Connexions Ammar Mirza said of the challenge: “The level of support and interest from all across the public, private and third sector for the challenge has just been overwhelming. We have small and big businesses coming together to support our common purpose focused on improving life chances and enhancing life choices within young people regardless of their background.”
Global Radio, which broadcasts some of the biggest radio stations in the country from its Newcastle headquarters, is supporting the challenge. MD of Global Radio North East, Kim Miljus, states: “This campaign affects every one of us… it's about building a better and brighter future for our region and everyone in the region. Inspiring young children and giving them higher aspirations about what they can achieve here in the North East is such an important message. Working together across business and education is key to ensuring we match those inspirations and aspirations to the career opportunities here in the NE. We wish every pupil taking part in today’s exciting BIG PIE Challenge every success and look forward to meeting some of the winners here in our studios.”
NCFE Business Support Assistant Abi Fiddler is supporting pupils at Wallsend Jubilee Primary School, while our North East Business Development Manager Meredith Ashford is at Walkergate Community School and Customer Development Advisor Adam Armstrong is supervising at Redesdale Primary School.
We wish all pupils taking part the best of luck – it’s great to see young people encouraged to hone their enterprising skills and be inspired to pursue careers in growing sectors.
