Independent, nonprofit education organisation Programme for Technological Careers (Protec) and energy equipment and services multinational GE hosted 122 girls and 86 boys in Grade 9 from schools around Johannesburg at the five-day immersive Next Engineers camp in July.

The camp was held at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and involved a range of activities, challenges, prizes, teamwork, inspirational talks and presentations, as well as lots of fun and excitement, not least because most of the learners had never before been exposed to an experience anything like it.

“The rationale behind hosting the learners on campus was to remove them from distractions and enable the team to pair them with postgraduate student mentors to inspire and help the learners imagine themselves studying at university one day,” says Protec CEO Balan Moodley.

The camp was designed to immerse the learners in the world of engineering, its impact on society and the role they could play in improving society through engineering, says Wits Engineering faculty Academic Development Unit director Professor Rodney Genga.

This was to be achieved through the camp programme, which involved interactively educating learners on the nine different engineering disciplines and workshops on their personal development.

The programme also included practical engineering exposure through science, engineering and computing laboratory access, as well as exposure to fundamentals of engineering design, and problem-solving from idea generation to prototyping to product development and presentations, as well as motivational talks from GE leaders and staff.

The learners also spent time with students and lecturers from Wits and were taken on laboratory tours in the different schools of engineering, such as mining, mechanical, industrial and aeronautical, electrical and information, civil and environmental, chemical and metallurgy, to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the engineering journey, says Genga.

The camp’s learners were divided into 41 teams of five, in which they then chose who would be responsible for project management, financial management, civil engineering, design management and quality assurance. The teams were given a design challenge inspired by real-life scenarios, which involved building the highest structure using Styrofoam cups, markers and scissors that could withstand a certain weight.

The learners were also addressed by and interacted with engineers from GE Southern Africa, including GE Southern Africa CEO Nyimpini Mabunda, and from Wits, including Wits Engineering faculty dean Professor Thokozani Majozi.

Before the close of the camp, the teams created and delivered presentations about their structures to panels of judges, which proved to be a challenge they embraced with enthusiasm, imagination and newly learnt skills. According to the panelists, presentations and structures were of a high standard, and there were no failures or disqualifications among the teams, Moodley adds.

The pupils, many from disadvantaged schools, were accommodated at a Wits residence. The GE Next Engineers programme is designed to inspire the next generation of engineers to build a more innovative, sustainable world and boost the uptake of engineering as a career.

“GE Foundation’s Next Engineers programme is an important step towards uplifting the lives of many aspiring young engineers, while also contributing to strengthening our engineering industry.

“The camp offered the learners the opportunity to start building on their passion for engineering, with the ultimate potential to turn it into a successful career in one of the many engineering disciplines,” notes Moodley.

GE’s Next Engineers programme was launched in Johannesburg in October 2021 and is committed to inspiring more than 3 500 Johannesburg learners aged 13 to 18, providing first-hand experiences in engineering and awarding financial support to pursue further education in engineering.