General Electric announced a five year, $2.5 million USD investment in Johannesburg to launch Next Engineers.
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GE has selected Johannesburg as one of four inaugural locations, aiming to inspire more than 3,500 local students aged 13 to 18 in grade eight to twelve, provide first hand experiences in engineering, and award financial support to pursue further education in engineering.
GE is partnering with PROTEC, South Africa’s non profit organisation that empowers local students to pursue and grow in STEM based careers, to implement Next Engineers locally.
Next Engineers is a program of the GE Foundation, an independent charitable organisation funded by GE.
The Johannesburg cohort of Next Engineers will begin in January 2022 and will offer three age dependent inspiring programmes to engage students on their paths to engineering studies:
Engineering Discovery: Students aged 13 14 in grade eight will be provided with multiple, short, one hour exploratory experiences, and hands on activities connecting students to real engineers to increase awareness of engineering as a viable career. Sessions will be delivered by volunteers both in the classroom and in the community.
Engineering Camp: Students aged 14 15 in grade nine will develop engineering identities through a week long immersive camp experience during school holidays. Students will interact with experienced engineering faculty and staff, complete design challenges solving real world problems, and interact directly with professional engineers and business leaders.
Engineering Academy: Students aged 15 18 in grade ten to twelve will enter a three year further education readiness programme to guide and encourage them to pursue an engineering career path. The Engineering Academy will teach students to learn, think and act like engineers.
This will provide 80 hours per year of out of school coaching, including longer challenges, a final year project, career coaching to expose students to different engineering pathways, and further education readiness workshops. Students accepted onto engineering apprenticeships or engineering degrees will also receive a funding contribution from the GE Foundation. ■