Students in Race for Grampian STEP Finals

Date: 25 August 2004

Fourteen students throughout the north east will be putting their best foot forward in an attempt to win the Shell Technology Enterprise Programme (STEP) award 2004. Sponsored by Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils, Shell and Enterprise North East Trust (Enterprise), the local winner will compete in the Scottish STEP finals and if successful will be in the UK STEP final for the £1 000 prize. The Grampian winner will be announced at a presentation in Shell Buildings (Shell U.K. Limited) Tullos, on 1st September 2004.

The fourteen finalists will take part in the first heat of the awards at Enterprise’s Riverview business centre, where all finalists will do a presentation of the work they have been involved in to a panel of judges.  The second heat will take place in the Shell Buildings, where six of the fourteen finalists will be asked to re-present their findings and one person will be chosen to win the Grampian Award.

Last year’s winner for the Grampian area was Gar-Ling Ng.  Gar-Ling won the coveted ‘UK’s Most Enterprising Student’ Award at the STEP Awards 2003 for her work last summer at Pact Engineering, an oil and gas pipeline engineering business based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Gar-Ling’s work resulted in a new design idea for an oil pipeline cleaner, offering significant commercial benefits to the oil industry worldwide.

Recent recruits to Enterprise North East Trust, Katy Sutherland and Jilly Cole have been project managing this years STEP initiative in Grampian.  They have managed to place students in a range of industry sectors throughout the area. 

Jilly Cole says, “At the beginning of the summer, companies across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire were offered the chance to employ a university or college undergraduate for eight weeks this summer through STEP. Students in the past have gained all kinds of experience through STEP, from web design to database development and marketing to environmental recycling projects, whilst employers save money and train the workforce of the future.”

The STEP initiative has been running for the past eighteen years, with over fourteen thousand projects being delivered throughout the UK.

Katy adds, “We placed fourteen students in companies throughout Grampian this year and as we draw closer to the end of their placement, we like to recognise the achievements of the most Enterprising student. The winner receives a £100 prize for their efforts.”

For further information on the STEP programme or the STEP Awards contact Jilly Cole or Katy Sutherland at Enterprise North East Trust on 01467 672522, or visit www.step.org.uk

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