BUDDING young engineers may have been unearthed at two schools in Wiltshire after pupils took part in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Faraday Challenge on Monday.

Youngsters at Malmesbury School and St John's Academy in Marlborough had the chance to become real-life engineers for the day when they researched, designed and built solutions to real engineering problems.

In Marlborough 36 pupils from Year 8 were divided into six teams for a race against the clock to try and solve some of the engineering problems that the Land Rover BAR team, who are competing in the famous America's Cup sailing race, face every day.

After many hours of competition, the team of Oscar Jessen, Ben Smith, Niamh Bailey, Micah Gregory, Macks Williams and Jonathan Jarjis won the day. Now they will wait to see if they have made it to the national final in 2017.

"It was fantastic to see how they went about tackling these difficult tasks and working as a team. They all seemed to come away wanting to be engineers," said Hayley Jones, the school's Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) co-ordinator.

"Some of the ideas were brilliant. I am very proud of what they accomplished, it is really quite inspiring.

"Fingers crossed that they can get to the national competition as that would be amazing but even if they do not make it, everyone has done so well."

The goal of this initiative is to get more youngsters to consider careers in STEM subjects and computing by using creativity, problem solving and innovation skills.

Keira Sewell, an IET challenge day leader, said: "The innovation and creativity on show by the pupils is fantastic and it is an absolute joy to be part of it all.

"They are far more creative than many adults as they always think what can be done instead of what cannot be done. Their enthusiasm is infectious and their ideas are very impressive.

"These are some very rigorous challenges and they have given it a really good go. We want to encourage young people to think about a career in engineering and events like this will certainly help that."

Each team member in the winning group was awarded a prize and a trophy for their school. The top five teams from across the UK will compete for a cash prize of up to £1,000.