More than 100 students from across Oxfordshire attended a special careers day for budding engineers. The Engineering Your Future day was organised by the RAF at the Diamond Light Source, Harwell.

Paul Jepson, a student from St Birinus School, Didcot, said: “Our challenge was to safely light all eight bulbs on a mini helipad. It was good because we weren’t given a long list of instructions of what to do, we were just given a few hints and had to work it out ourselves.”

He added: “I’m hoping to get on to the apprenticeship scheme at Culham. My brother’s two years into it and my dad also did an engineering apprenticeship.”

As well as the helipad, students were able to have a go at designing and building the foundations to support an offshore windmill, courtesy of Wallingford company Fugro GeoConsulting, which provides consulting for the offshore oil and gas industry.

Other activities included controlling a prototype space robot similar to those used in missions to the Moon or Mars.

Timo Gaultney, from Lord Williams School in Thame, said: “It’s quite a different thing to do. We don’t usually think about how to design a wind turbine but it has been really fun.”

Students were also shown around the giant X-ray machine, which enables scientists to study objects at a molecular and atomic level.

Stewart Scott, a senior mechanical project engineer at Diamond, added: “We have had lots of positive feedback from the pupils and teachers. It is important young people get a better understanding of the exciting career opportunities out there in the field of engineering.”