Students descend on MTI for science and technology festival
Added by Love Business East Midlands | 5 March 2025
UPDATED: 5 March 2025
Around 160 school pupils from across North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire took part in an exciting science and technology activities with major employers at this year’s TeenTech MTI.
Year 8 and 9 pupils from 11 schools visited the MIRA Technology Institute (MTI) in Nuneaton last week to take part in an interactive programme designed to help them learn about digital, science and technology careers.
It was the sixth time the hugely popular festival has been held at MTI and was hosted by TeenTech founder and director Maggie Philbin who is best known for presenting a range of popular radio and television shows, including Tomorrow’s World, Bang Goes the Theory and Inside Out.
She said:
“This has been an absolutely incredible event which has opened the eyes of so many students to the opportunities that are available to them in the science, technology and engineering industries – no matter their gender or what social background they come from.
“TeenTech festivals really can be life changing. Young people will have a conversation with an employer or try an activity and it makes them realise for the first time that they have a talent or an interest in a particular area that they were unaware of.
“We can’t thank MTI and the employers who participated enough – they brought such energy and imagination to this festival and made it so valuable for the students and teachers who attended.”
This year’s TeenTech MTI festival, held on Thursday, 27 February, was supported by MTI, North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College (NWSLC), the Electric Revolution Skills Hub – Electrification Training, Careers and Community and industry giants HORIBA MIRA, Amazon Web Services, FluxSys, Haldex, Triumph Motorcycles, Wincanton and FANUC. It was sponsored by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council.
In the festival’s Insight Zone, the leading organisations shared with the students the insights they are currently working on and encouraged them to take part in a series of hands-on activities.
Prior to the festival, the students also took part in a virtual event run by TeenTech which encouraged them to come up with ideas for new applications of technology. Then on Thursday, 27 February, they pitched these ideas to industry experts in the festival’s Innovation Zone to gain constructive feedback. The students have until Easter to submit their ideas to the annual TeenTech awards programme.
MTI Operations Director Lisa Bingley said:
“As a specialist facility designed specifically to train the next generation of engineers in the latest automotive, sustainability and green energy technology, we were thrilled to host MTI TeenTech for the sixth time.
“The festival was filled with inspirational examples of innovation from leading organisations, and it was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic students asking insightful questions about the career opportunities that are open to them.
“We hope this festival will inspire lots of students to go on to develop careers in Emerging Technology in our region.”
The MTI is the result of a unique collaboration led by NWSLC and its partners HORIBA MIRA, Coventry University, the University of Leicester and Loughborough University.
For more information about MTI visit https://miratechnologyinstitute.co.uk/ or to learn about NWSLC, visit: www.nwslc.ac.uk
To find out more about TeenTech, visit https://teentech.com/
