Results from the gradcracker Grand Prix at ëEnergise your Futureí

The Energise your Future event, organised by OPITO, Marathon, Shell, WSCA, Careers Scotland and The Energy Institute, was held at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC). The event was staged to inform school children, students and members of the public about career opportunities in the Oil and Gas industry. Gradcracker, the UK website dedicated to the recruitment of engineering graduates, exhibited at the event and hosted the gradcracker Grand Prix. Many gradcracker employers (Schlumberger, Shell, Expro, Technip, Amec, Aker Solutions, Weatherford, Total, Halliburton and Maersk) also exhibited at the event.

The main session of the day was aimed towards school children, aged 14 upwards. Each exhibitor was required to have an interactive activity on their stand to encourage the children to get involved. Activities were varied and included ROV simulators, quizzes, challenges and computer simulations. The gradcracker Grand Prix featured Scalextric cars which could be customised to feature any of the gradcracker employers.

Each child could choose an employer to represent and race around our figure-of-eight track in a car bearing the logo of the chosen company. The stand instantly attracted crowds and the lap time to beat was set early on the day - 2.1 seconds by Roger from Banchory Academy who chose to race as Siemens. Nobody managed to beat this time but it was equalled by Frazer (racing as Rolls Royce) and Ian (racing as Halliburton), both of Turiff Academy. The race was fiercely competitive and the winning schools received a pack of gradcracker t-shirts as a prize.

Once the children had left the exhibition centre for their final talk of the day, it was the turn of the gradcracker advertisers to take to the track (and you thought the children were competitive)!! It was a while before any of the adults came close to the times set earlier in the day, but Dylan Thomas of Schlumberger set a gradcracker record lap time of 1.9 seconds.

Energise your future proved to be a positive way of making children aware of the possibilities open to them both in the Oil and Gas industry and in engineering in general and it is hoped that their experiences on the gradcracker race track will remind them where to look when they are considering their future careers.