This week Neil discusses this year’s Festomane

THE fifth Festival of Manufacturing and Engineering is just a few weeks away. The main events start on Thursday, February 9 and finishes with the exhibition at Stratford Park Leisure Centre on Wednesday, February 15. All details are on the website – festomane.co.uk

Like last year, Festomane coincides with school half term so pupils get involved in the exciting, interactive and thought-provoking ideas. One of the principle objectives of Festomane is to engage young people with engineering and manufacturing so their choices and pathways in education can reflect the many career opportunities in this vitally important sector.

The exhibition features the brilliant Marty Jopson from BBC’s The One Show – it will be awesome and high voltage. Other highlights will include the Liquid Nitrogen Show, PopUp Planetarium, Frijj Challenge, Fantastic Plastic, Renewble Energy Challenge, and many opportunities to engage with local firms. There is something for everybody, especially young people, parents and grandparents.

The famously successful “Engineer your future” event for pupils in the 13-19 age range is happening on Saturday, February 11. As before The day includes interactive workshops, inspirational speakers and insights into the future of engineering.

Another aim of Festomane is to bring businesses together so, on Thursday, February 9, the Grow Your Manufacturing and Engineering Business takes place. It is all about benchmarking with Gloucestershire’s best, interfacing with experts, networking - especially in supply chain terms - and learning from others in tackling and overcoming challenges.

There will also be the “Made in Stroud… Incredible Inventions” trail at the Museum in the Park during the period February 11 to 19. The engineering history of the Stroud Valleys and Vale is inspirational but also the foundation of the successful local economy based on invention and production. Nearly 25 per cent of all jobs in the area are directly connected to engineering.

Sponsors of Festomane include Stroud District Council, Muller, Big Lottery Fund, Green Spark, IET, Delphi, Platform 14, Lister Shearing, Renishaw, SGS (Stroud College), Omega, University of West of England, Sartorius, Stem Works, Airbus, Ecotricity, The Isaac Partnership and the Summerfield Charitable Trust. The Festomane team is very grateful for this powerful support.