Celebrated race driver and iron man Mark Webber inspires young people
As an antidote to going to the polling booth and waiting all day for results which don’t come to the day after, come and breathe the air of the Mark Webber Challenge and teams of students from participating colleges. Thursday 7th May is the date of this annual challenge organised by Inspire Young People, the Bucks/Oxon/Thames Valley charity which helps young people get into work on leaving college. Mark Webber, who lives in Buckinghamshire, is the charity’s patron and can’t resist getting actively involved in the sporting contests and in the job of inspiring students.
Among the sponsors is SEMTA, a government initiative which, through the STEM Alliance, is working to encourage diversity and numbers in careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM)organisations (www.semta.org.uk). Some of their member companies will be present on the day, those which sponsor Inspire and those which work with Inspire to provide training, work placements and apprenticeships so that students are work-ready when leaving fulltime education. Pro-Link and Parton Road Properties continue their sponsorship of Inspire which they started in 2014. Other companies are invited to attend on 7th May to meet Mark Webber and the Inspire team and to see how they can get involved.
Two television crews will be present during the day to provide media coverage and video material for promotion of the initiative in the future. Commercial sponsors including small companies are welcome to come to find out about Inspire’s work, meet Mark Webber and to share a cup of tea at 16h00. Members of the public are also welcome to spectate the sports events and cheer their college on.
The competing colleges are the six founder members of Inspire… Amersham and Wycombe College, Aylesbury College, East Berkshire College (Slough/Langley), Milton Keynes College, The Henley College and West Herts College (Watford). Other colleges have stated their intention to join during 2015 and in the future.