Sepura Engineering Team Support STEM Students
Andrea Morreale from Sepura’s Test Engineering Team recently attended Blackbird Leys Campus at the City of Oxford College to support and mentor engineering students in their ongoing studies.
Andrea is one of Sepura’s STEM Ambassadors, playing an active role in developing and supporting STEM students to enhance the UK’s future engineering potential. Engineering Lecturer Habib Rahman at the College completed a period of work experience at Sepura seven years ago, and when he was looking for an inspirational engineer to put in front of his students, his thoughts turned immediately to his former mentor.
Andrea’s presentation was designed to inspire new students about the potential of a career in engineering. During the day Andrea was able to demonstrate some of the techniques that had gone into producing some of Sepura’s market-leading TETRA terminals, including the SC20 and SC21 devices which are being adopted by police forces across Europe.
A section of the presentation also focussed on accessories, showing the value to students of producing a full solution that answers a customer’s needs, rather than an individual set of products.
Andrea was able to provide valuable career guidance to the students, including how to approach their engineering studies, choosing a route between studying science or engineering and the skills and attitudes required to be a successful STEM student. Some of the students, like their lecturer seven years ago, may have been wondering if engineering was the right career choice for them. Clearly Habib was inspired by the experience at Sepura, as seven years later he is involved in bringing the next generation to the workplace.
To put these skills in context, Andrea presented “A Day in the Life” of a test engineer at Sepura, demonstrating the use of specification documents, highlighting the value of testing, introducing some of the challenges faced in the environment and focussing on customer satisfaction as the ultimate goal.
“It is always a refreshing experience to spend time with future engineers to enable them to see the enormous potential in the UK’s engineering sector. Sepura is such an enriching environment to work in, with a real value placed on engineering excellence helping to deliver critical communications solutions to public safety organisations. For the students to see the potential of this and how STEM roles contribute to a company was fascinating, and we look forward to running future similar courses for more engineers of the future.”
Andrea Morreale, Sepura’s Test Engineering Team