Heathrow has won an award for its work in bridging the gap between schools and the business community in boroughs including Hounslow , Ealing and Hillingdon.
The Heathrow Primary School Challenge programme won the 2014 Malcolm Gibbons cup in this year's Spark! charity partnership awards, last Thursday (20).
The project is aimed at inspiring pupils to explore airport-type careers where there is a skills gap such as in engineering.
In the most recent task faced by Year 5 and 6 children, students had to learn the engineering story of Terminal 2, and draw up designs for their own terminal, before turning them into a reality using STIXX - newspapers turned into building rods.
This was the eighth year of the challenge which involved 52 schools and 3,250 students in the five surrounding boroughs to the airport, including 13 schools in Hillingdon, 11 schools in Ealing and nine schools in Hounslow.
Sundeep Sangha, head of economic development at Heathrow, said: “We are very pleased to be the recipient of this year’s Malcolm Gibbons Cup and see the Heathrow Primary School Challenge recognised as a leader in work-related primary school programmes.
"Over the years, 20,741 Year 5 and 6 students have benefited from the skills taught in the challenge and undoubtedly many of them have been inspired to pursue careers in engineering.
"Raising aspirations and academic achievement is the true mark of success for this programme, and why it is so popular each year.”
Rachel McAdam, fundraising manager from Spark! partnership, added: “We were impressed by the focus and commitment from the Heathrow Education Team in helping young people to learn about careers at the airport, and were pleased to be able to hand over the cup to recognise the success of the Primary School Challenge.
"Spark! looks forward to ongoing collaboration and thanks Heathrow for their hard work and support.”
Schools will soon receive an invite to the 2015 Heathrow Primary School Challenge.
