Engineering Excellence

Following a nation-wide search for young people with outstanding aptitude in engineering, two Wallace Hall Academy pupils received their prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarship Awards at a grand ceremony in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre last week, hosted by The Smallpeice Trust.

Brothers John and Luke McKay applied to the Arkwright Foundation, which exists to promote study in engineering and develop pupils with the potential to be industry leaders by supporting them through their final two years at school. The Foundation is sponsored by a wide range of Universities, professional institutions and companies and organisations working in the field of engineering.

Only pupils pre-selected by their school could apply and the process involved a detailed application, a two-hour aptitude exam, and a formal interview at Heriot-Watt University. The boys also had to give a presentation on an engineering project they had been involved in, and were able to draw on their experience as part of Wallace Hall’s prizewinning Team Glic robotics team.

John and Luke were each – individually – chosen as Arkwright Scholars. They will receive a financial award and, more importantly, hands-on work experience, project support and personal mentoring to help them as they pursue careers in Engineering.

This is a tremendous achievement as there were only around 415 Arkwright Scholarships awarded this year in the whole of Britain.