STEM Workshops in Newcastle

Newcastle and the North East have an engineering heritage that helped drive the global industrial revolution. George Stephenson, born in Wylam in 1781, and his son Robert developed the Rocket locomotive, which won the Rainhill Trials in 1829. In 1878, Joseph Swan demonstrated his incandescent lightbulb at a lecture in Newcastle. His home in Gateshead is widely regarded as the first in the world lit by electric light. Sir Charles Parsons invented the modern steam turbine in 1884, a technology that made cheap and plentiful electricity possible.

George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways," transformed transport and industry through his railway engineering achievements and independently developed the safety lamp. Joseph Swan's development of the incandescent lightbulb and his partnership with Thomas Edison to form the Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company cemented the North East's role in the birth of electrical engineering. Sir Charles Parsons' invention of the steam turbine revolutionised marine transport, as was dramatically demonstrated when his vessel Turbinia stunned observers at the 1897 Spithead Naval Review. Rachel Parsons, his daughter, worked at the family's C.A. Parsons & Co. engineering works in Newcastle and co-founded the Women's Engineering Society in 1919, opening doors for women in engineering at a time when the profession was almost entirely closed to them.

Newcastle and the North East today are home to research centres in offshore renewables and subsea technologies. The Dogger Bank Wind Farm, currently under construction, is set to become the world's largest offshore wind farm, and its operations and maintenance base is at the Port of Tyne. The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, with its facility at Blyth, is the UK's flagship renewable energy technology innovation and research centre. Newcastle also has a growing digital sector, with Sage (one of the UK's largest tech companies, headquartered at Cobalt Business Park in North Tyneside) and the National Innovation Centre for Data driving innovation.

Young people in Newcastle have access to a range of STEM career opportunities, particularly in offshore energy, subsea engineering, and digital technology. Dogger Bank Wind Farm, being built by SSE Renewables and to be operated by Equinor, has created over 400 long-term local roles to support its operations and maintenance. Newcastle University's School of Engineering teaches naval architecture and marine engineering. Sage and a growing number of other international technology companies offer digital careers.