New Year, New Challenge: Students Learn Repair Skills
By Jill Dando News
Students in Somerset are learning new ‘green’ skills thanks to SUEZ recycling and recovery UK and Somerset Council.
Team Repair, a multi award winning start-up company on a mission to increase STEM career uptake and tackle the e-waste crisis, will be running the 12-week course.
Students will learn to repair a microscope, games console, torch and a remote-control car and explore the science behind the gadgets.
The lessons give students hands-on experience learning repair skills, teaching them to carefully take the item apart, diagnose the fault, understand the components and fix it to end up with a working gadget.
This project aims to support schools in teaching more green skills and equip the next generation to work towards a more circular economy.
In the process they hope to reduce electronic waste while engaging young people with the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Students from Sexey’s School in Bruton have been the first to take on the new challenge, and a further four schools in Somerset, and one Somerset Youth Group, will also benefit from a twelve-week Team Repair sponsorship.
The Team Repair sessions are being funded from the SW:EEP fund. This uses ring-fenced income from the sale of recyclable materials to support projects that reduce waste and benefit the community.
Electronic waste is one of the largest contributors to climate change. Every year 103,000 tonnes of e-waste is thrown away in the UK - the equivalent to 8.5 million microwaves.
Cllr Richard Wilkins, Executive Member for Transport and Waste Services, said: “Buying new and throwing away things that no longer work massively adds to the climate crisis. The things we use everyday are filled with valuable materials, including gold and copper, loving our things for longer stops this from going to waste.
“The opportunity to get a hands-on experience to learn repair skills and get young people interested in STEM is a really positive way to tackle the e-waste issue.”
Lily Morton, Senior Community Liaison Manager at SUEZ added: “We are not only committed to managing waste but also reducing it at its source. By sponsoring schools to take part in the brilliant Team Repair programme, we hope that we are providing the opportunity for children to leave school with practical repair and green skills.
“There’s a need for more green skills in the waste sector. Projects like this help to embed them at a young age.”
Laura Turnbull, Senior House Parent, Sexey’s School said: “The idea of receiving a broken gadget, learning new skills to fix it and then putting the gadget to use has been really exciting for our boarders. Team Repair has helped our boarders to learn some valuable fixing skills and a lot of patience.”
