STEM Workshops in Reading

Reading's industrial history is closely tied to the "three Bs" of beer, biscuits and bulbs, with Huntley and Palmers once operating the world's largest biscuit factory and Suttons Seeds pioneering horticultural science. The arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1840 transformed Reading into a major transport hub and brought engineering expertise to the town. From the late twentieth century, Reading's location on the M4 motorway between London and Bristol made it a natural home for technology companies, and the Thames Valley developed into a major technology corridor.

The Thames Valley technology cluster owes much to the vision of companies that established early UK headquarters in the Reading area, with Microsoft choosing the town for its UK base in 1991. Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading created the climate warming stripes visualisation, one of the most recognisable graphics in climate science communication. Professor Emily Black, who has been based at the University of Reading since 2000, leads the TAMSAT programme providing early warning of rainfall changes across Africa, and her research into the societal impact of precipitation has earned her the Royal Meteorological Society's Hugh Robert Mill Award. Professor Brian Hoskins, also at the University of Reading, shared the 2024 Japan Prize for establishing the scientific foundation for predicting extreme weather events.

Reading sits at the centre of the Thames Valley technology cluster, home to the UK or European headquarters of Microsoft, Oracle, Huawei and many other major technology firms. The town's enterprise parks, including Thames Valley Park and Green Park, host technology employers across software development, cloud computing, cybersecurity and telecommunications. The University of Reading contributes significant research in meteorology, agriculture and computer science, whilst the town's proximity to London and excellent transport links continue to attract investment.

The Thames Valley offers an exceptional range of STEM career opportunities for young people, from software engineering and data science at global technology firms to research roles at the University of Reading. Microsoft, Oracle and numerous other employers in the area run graduate programmes and apprenticeships in areas including cloud computing, artificial intelligence and network engineering. The proximity of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at nearby Aldermaston provides highly specialised careers in physics, materials science and engineering.