Year 10 Girls Tackle Engineering Challenges at South Devon College STEM Event

Saving the seabed. Redesigning urban transport. Building a water harvesting system from scratch. These were the challenges handed to Year 10 girls from five local schools at South Devon College’s annual Girls into STEM event on the 23rd of June.

Held at the Hi Tech & Digital Centre to mark International Women in Engineering Day, the event brought together around fifty students from Dawlish Academy, Torquay Academy, South Devon High School, St Cuthbert Mayne and Paignton Academy. Each school had been paired with a local technology employer since April, meeting monthly to develop solutions to real engineering problems before presenting their ideas in a Dragon’s Den format on the day.

Teams spent the morning refining their concepts before presenting to a panel of judges that included representatives from Torbay Council, Exeter University, and South Devon College. The challenges were deliberately ambitious: addressing the environmental damage caused by traditional bottom trawling, tackling falling reservoir levels, designing large-scale automated recycling systems, and reimagining sustainable urban transport networks.

Among the judges was Holly Manvell, an Independent Strategy and Transformation Consultant, who sat with each group to score their proposals. “We sat with the groups to award the most viable, exciting and marketable proposal their dues,” she said, congratulating South Devon High School on their win.

Reflecting on why the day matters, Manvell pointed to the current picture in engineering: women make up just 17% of the UK’s engineering and technology workforce, despite the sector accounting for around 19% of all UK jobs, and represent only around 19 to 20% of engineering and technology apprenticeship starts. For her, closing that gap starts with events exactly like this one, giving young women the chance to back themselves early.

For Jen Bevin-Mills, Programme Coordinator for Engineering at South Devon College and mentor for the winning team, the event carries a particular significance.

“The Girls into STEM Day is an event I feel extremely passionate about as a female Programme Coordinator for FE Engineering,” she said. “Being involved in an initiative that encourages young women to explore engineering and STEM careers is both inspiring and rewarding.”

Jen mentored the South Devon High School group, whose project focused on the Save the Seabed challenge. She was struck by how quickly the students grasped the complexity of the problem, going on to propose a dual solution combining autonomous seabed-mapping robots with a redesigned net system using sonar sensors to prevent accidental contact with the seabed.

“The group quickly generated a range of innovative ideas,” Jen said. “The next stage involved creating their presentation, and the girls demonstrated exceptional teamwork. They ensured that every member of the group felt included and comfortable with their role.”

South Devon High School, supported by the South Devon College Engineering team, were awarded first place on the day. Each member of the winning team received a £50 Amazon voucher, made possible through the sponsorship of Chris Wardman and Elaine Plested at Copper Turtle.

For Charlotte Bounsall, Events and Projects Coordinator for the Hi Tech & Digital Centre and STEM Ambassador, moments like these are what the event is built around.

“Watching the girls step into the challenge with such initiative, confidence, and real ingenuity was inspiring,” she said. “They weren’t afraid to push boundaries, explore bold ideas, and back themselves, and that’s exactly the kind of mindset that will shape the future of engineering and technology.”

The students themselves reflected on what the day had given them beyond the engineering brief. “It helped me to think differently about the issues we don’t think about day to day,” said Sienna Willis from South Devon High School. “It also helped me with my public speaking and how to work with a team.” Her teammate Bonnie Harris agreed, adding that the event had helped with her public speaking and opened her eyes to the environmental impact of fishing on seabeds.

Now in its latest year, Girls in STEM continues to grow, offering young women across Torbay and South Devon the chance to work alongside industry professionals, build confidence, and discover what a career in engineering could look like for them.

Jen, for one, already has it marked in her calendar. “I am already looking forward to the opportunity to be involved again next year.”

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