CHILDREN at Rhosymedre Community Primary School near Wrexham have had fun learning how to programme robot cars, helped by Clwyd South AM Ken Skates.

The “Engineering the Future” workshop, led by Techniquest Glyndwr Science Centre, was the latest in a series run by Techniquest in schools in Wrexham to encourage children to learn digital skills and find out more about autonomous vehicles.

“The workshop I saw today was fantastic," said Mr Skates.

"Digital skills are going to drive economic growth in the future and ensuring young people are really enthusiastic about developing these skills is vitally important."

The workshop was supported by the Engineering Education Grant Scheme which is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the IET and aims to increase engineering knowledge in students aged 5 to 19.

The new Welsh schools’ curriculum, which will be rolled out from 2022, will emphasise “real-world” learning experiences, making programmes like “Engineering the Future” even more crucial, said Liz Edwards, Head Teacher at Rhosymedre Community Primary School.

“I was thrilled to see how much the children enjoyed learning to programme the cars," she explained.

"It was fun but more importantly, workshops like these encourage the children to see what opportunities could be open to them – technology will be key to many of the jobs of the future.”

Nearly 200,000 young people and over 7,000 teachers have taken part in projects supported by the EEGS programme which supports projects across the UK. The scheme, which has two funding rounds a year, makes awards of up to £15,000 to STEM projects.