Alstom and young engineers of the future 'Train to Win'

Alstom helped more than 300 children, from 30 schools, to participate in a TeenTech event specifically designed to encourage young people into careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) at a special event at the University of Manchester on 23 October.

The Alstom team gave youngsters the chance to play an interactive train game, called 'Train 2 Win', that was designed and built by Alstom's STEM ambassadors and the workshop team at the Longsight Traincare Centre in Manchester.

Teams of 10 children aged between 12-14 assumed the roles of engineers, signallers and controllers and were tasked to think about the maintenance challenges associated with moving a model of an Alstom Pendolino around a track. This included the more challenging task of taking the model up a hill by considering different types of wheelsets. Stretford Grammar School, who were the most successful team on the day, won a tour of the Longsight depot after overcoming the various challenges.

Umar Saleem, Alstom STEM ambassador and Project Quality Engineer at Longsight, said: "I think we had as much fun as the children, if not more! The children provided us with feedback on how fun the sessions were. Thirty-six out of forty-eight of our young visitors gave us five out of five, which was great feedback for us."

Maggie Philbin, BBC broadcaster and CEO of TeenTech said: "I've seen the video of the work done by Alstom and I'm really impressed with what they do.  I am so jealous of these children who will get to see it first hand, I really wish I could have gone too." 

Alstom is participating at the Manchester Science Festival  and at the next TeenTech event in London, on 27 November, and then at the Big Bang Fair in March 2014.