Following the completion of the inaugural year of the Randstad Williams Engineering Academy, Randstad and Williams are pleased to announce the students from the Class of 2015 that have successfully made it through to the second year of this innovative new programme.
The Randstad Williams Engineering Academy is the first programme of its kind to identify young students from across the globe and guide them towards a career as Formula One engineers. Eleven students from six different countries joined the Academy in September 2015. Over the past twelve months, the students have completed a series of e-learning based tasks on various motorsport engineering related themes, an essay based project, and received mentoring and tutoring from engineers at Williams.
This is a competitive scheme, with each cohort gradually whittled down in number from the time they join aged 16-18, until the completion of their university studies. Based on various performance criteria, Williams and Randstad have decided to retain eight students who will begin year two of the programme next month. These students are;
Aaron Hannon, Republic of Ireland
Ana Andrade, Portugal
George Britton, USA
Maximillian Britton, USA
Devansh Dhard, Germany
James Rodger, United Kingdom
Rachel Scott, United Kingdom
Declan Southern, United Kingdom
Declan Southern, aged 17 from the United Kingdom, has been named as the “Outstanding Student” for the year. Declan is currently studying Physics, Maths, French and Design and Technology (Systems and Control) at A Level, with a view to studying for a degree in Mechanical Engineering at university from September 2017.
Speaking about the performance of the Academy students Pat Symonds, Chief Technical Officer at Williams, said; “We have been extremely impressed by the calibre of the students and the dedication they have shown over the past twelve months. Their progress, both personally and educationally, has been astonishing and we are delighted to announce those who will be continuing on to year two. They will be continuing their e-learning curriculum which will start to turn theory into practice, with a greater practical element that will also test their team working skills.
Selecting who to keep and who will depart the programme was incredibly difficult – everybody deserved a place – and to those leaving the programme we thank them for their efforts and trust that they have had experiences that will stand them in good stead for the future.”
Mariella de Koning, CMO at Randstad Holding nv said; “It is amazing to witness what these students have accomplished in a year, truly inspirational. Scarcity in STEM profiles is a real issue in today’s labour market. Tackling this early-on is vital to ensure students and candidates choose a career in STEM-related sectors. We are excited to see where the RWEA will be taking these promising young engineers, and how we can support them in building fulfilling careers.”
On 19th October Williams and Randstad will be selecting the students who will join the second cohort of the Academy from the students competing at the F1 in Schools World Finals in Austin, Texas. The names of these students will be announced on 20th October. Details can be accessed at www.williamsf1.com/racing/news or by emailing media@williamsf1.com or corporate.communications@randstadholding.com to sign up to the press release distribution list.
