The Science Academy concentrates on working with young people, from secondary schools upwards, to encourage them to study science and to consider a career in the sector in future years.

The Academy has four key objectives and these are a selection of the activities that the Academy has undertaken to support them:

Make secondary science inspiring and relevant for life – local companies Bottlegreen and Corin plc organised visits to their premised and ran competitions for groups of students from Deerpark Secondary School, in Cirencester. Bottlegreen challenged students to devise a new drink to complement its range. The winning team’s drink was bottled and students saw the beverage travel along Bottlegreen’s production line. Corin, the prosthetics company in Cirencester, ran a competition to give a presentation on the topic of ‘Why Skeletons Fail’. A unique Corin sculpture was given for the best talk.

Attract young people into science and develop them as the technologists for the future – Holly Weeks, a student at Cirencester College, was given the opportunity to apply for the role of Analytical Technician at Cardinal Health, the pharmaceutical company in Swindon. And a member of the Science Academy. Holly was ‘extremely pleased’ to secure the job, which gave her the first step into a Science career and the chance of take further studies to degree level, while working for the company.

Make science students commercially proficient to operate in a business environment – Rowan Zarkov, a Cirencester College student who majored in Science, was invited to spend 6 weeks at Corin on a work placement in the summer of 2006. The company were so pleased with Rowan that he has now been asked back to work for them in his gap year, before moving onto university.

Enabling the process – the Academy collaborated with Setpoint, an organisation aiming to develop pupils’ interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, to put together a DVD, ‘What do Scientists Really Do?’. The production shows people at work in a variety of interesting and exciting science based jobs and was produced by the College’s Media students.