STEM Workshops in Oldham

Oldham grew into the world's most productive cotton-spinning town. Its first mill, Lees Hall, opened around 1778, and by 1818 the town had 19 mills, growing to more than 360 mills at its peak. That trade needed machines, and from a partnership formed in 1820 between Henry Platt and Elijah Hibbert grew Platt Brothers, which became the world's largest textile-machinery maker, employing more than 15,000 people before the First World War. Oldham's scientific history is not only industrial: at what is now Royal Oldham Hospital, on 25 July 1978, consultant Patrick Steptoe and Cambridge physiologist Robert Edwards achieved the birth of Louise Brown, the world's first baby born by in vitro fertilisation.

Patrick Steptoe was a consultant gynaecologist at Oldham and District General Hospital from 1951 and led its Centre for Human Reproduction from 1969 to 1979. Working there with Cambridge physiologist Robert Edwards and embryologist Jean Purdy, he developed in vitro fertilisation, collecting and preparing the eggs that led to the birth of Louise Brown in 1978. Brian Cox, born in Oldham in 1968 and raised in nearby Chadderton, is professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester, works on the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, and holds the Royal Society's professorship for public engagement in science.

Royal Oldham Hospital, the renamed Oldham and District General Hospital, remains a major district hospital run by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, continuing to provide maternity and acute care decades after Louise Brown's birth there. Oldham College teaches Engineering and Manufacturing, Digital Technologies and Science alongside T Levels, including Supporting Midwifery, and its Apprenticeship Academy is designed to move students from vocational study into workplace training; University Campus Oldham extends study to degree level on the same site. Hathershaw's Park Cake Bakeries, a large food manufacturer, has supplied Marks and Spencer since 1945 and today makes more than 180 products for M&S Food.

Oldham College is the borough's principal further education route, teaching Engineering and Manufacturing, Digital Technologies and Science alongside T Levels, including Supporting Midwifery, and its selective Apprenticeship Academy prepares students for workplace training with local employers. University Campus Oldham, on the same site, extends study to degree level without pupils needing to leave the borough. Royal Oldham Hospital, run by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, recruits across nursing, midwifery and allied health roles, while Hathershaw's Park Cake Bakeries offers routes into food production and process engineering. Manchester's universities sit within commuting distance for pupils who progress further.