Practical skills - engineering

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DS is 13, and thinking about engineering as a future study option / career. But school have stopped offering DT as an GCSE option, I think because they don’t have the teachers any more. He really likes maths, physics for the theory side of engineering but he’d like to get more practical hands-on experience and skills. I get the sense this is increasingly important especially if he wants to do a post 18 apprenticeship. Neither DH or I are remotely ‘handy’, can do a bit of DIY and that’s it. School don’t offer any clubs like building karts or anything else like that.

Anyone got ideas of what he could get involved in / do to fill the gap? And what skills might be most important?

Are there any sixth forms/colleges locally who offer product design A level? Ds is doing that and absolutely loves it. They get skills like CAD, prototyping, actual making, design and other stuff. He's also doing the EESE gold cadet thing and that partners their school with local engineers to solve real world problems

Can you download a free CAD program so he can practise designing? Google Sketch Up used to be free, but there may be others out there.
A lot of engineering is about problem solving. Can he / Does he try to work out interesting solutions to practical problems?
Do the Scouts have anything to offer? (no idea, just a guess). Railway modelling club or similar?
Do any local unis run summer school sessions for students wanting to enter STEM courses? They're usually keen to encourage pupils.

Thanks for the thoughts about CAD, will have a look at that.

His school doesn’t do product design, but useful to know what they’re doing on the course - will have a quick look at the spec - there is a nearby school that specialises in engineering, but they take in at 14, and have quite a narrow curriculum, no languages etc - which is great for some kids but not right for ds. Maybe post GCSEs.

Will have a look at local unis. I guess a year or two from now he can look for work experience, but would be good to try out some skills in the meantime.

What type of engineering is he interested in OP?

He’s a bit unsure, maybe mechanicalas it seems broadest, but the interest is mostly from wanting to apply his maths and physics into real life - he likes the problem solving aspects of these subjects. We had an extension done recently and he was very interested in the steel beams and the calculations involved in that. Especially as his bedroom is the one above! He’s not been an inherently ‘take the tv apart and try to put it back together’ kid, but we’ve not prompted that kind of activity ourselves.

If he was interested in the building of the extension, then maybe look at civil engineering, or architecture.
Both tricky to gain skills in at a practical level at his age, but any kind of (sophisticated) model making might be useful?

It might be worth your son taking a look at the EDT website (link below). EDT (Engineering Development Trust) oversees a whole range of activities and programmes for different age groups and specialist areas across engineering and other STEM. One of my DC participated in one of their online courses to help decide what resonated and what did not. From a parental perspective, I found them to be highly organised. Link: www.etrust.org.uk/

Have a look at

Royal Academy of Engineering
Big Bang Fairs
Engineering Council UK
STEMnet

Thanks all, will take a look at those organisations. From what I’ve seen, there seems to be various things offered to schools, but less that an individual can access themselves. EDT sounds good in that respect, in seeing the options available. Such a shame that he doesn’t have the option of DT though.

My DS goes to a STEM school and is currently studying for a T level in engineering. I throughly recommend he joins your local one at 14 as those children who haven't studied prior to starting the course that have come in from other schools are really struggling to catch up with what the other children have already learnt at gcse.