I attended and spoke at the launch this afternoon of the fifth year of the Science and Technology in Action and Spirit of Enterprise initiatives, and the opening meeting of the EU Framework Programme 7 supported ESTABLISH project, at the EU Parliament Office in Dublin this afternoon, along with Batt O'Keefe Minister for Education and Science, and Anna Gethings, the driving force behind the initiatives.
About 150 people attended, included representatives from 11 Member States and 12 institutions. A number of commercial supporters of the initiatives were there, together with representatives of some teaching associations, the NCCA and WITS, amongst others.
I am very impressed by both STIA and SOE. Both, through their commercial partners, provide practical examples of how science and engineering principles are applied in industry and the public service, and set practical examples - and challenges - for students to follow. The quality of the resources for teachers also appeared to me to be high.
I myself spoke about the fusion of science, engineering and business to create innovation for the global market. I also pointed to mathematics as a core discipline which establishes skills to identify patterns, generalise, extrapolate, and then apply principles in new situations.
Anna and I were then interviewed live by Mary Wilson on RTE's Drivetime radio show about the role of science and engineering teaching in the school system.
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Always great to see industry partners getting involved in the encouragement of education. These events are great to raise profile. I'd love to see this develop to be a local engineering/science in local schools and beome more widespread.
ReplyDeleteI am delighted to see you are putting such effort into promoting careers in science and technology. Keep up the good work.
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