On Wednesday 22nd October, some Year 10-13 students attended a talk about the engineering industry by Mike Jordanou, CEO of MCJ Advisory and father of three former Latymerians. He has worked in over 60 countries, including those in Africa like Lebanon, and specialises in the design of the transport infrastructure of various large-scale projects.

As Eashwar, Year 12 student, reports "It was very informative and interesting to learn about the complex thought process that goes into planning and designing infrastructure projects.

He explained the role of environmental sustainability, as well as the socio-economic impacts the projects may have on local communities. In addition, he spoke about and explained the growing importance of various disciplines like data analytics in engineering. Mike also told us about some universities, including Russell Group ones, that offer engineering courses, mentioning how much the industry has grown from when he was at university: for instance, Imperial College offers nine courses now.

Moreover, he gave us advice on how we can apply to various companies for apprenticeship, explaining how they have the potential to offer the same benefit as most university courses. Overall, the lecture was really engaging, giving us an insight into the various sectors the engineering industry involves, especially in civil engineering industry, showing the opportunities it has to offer.