“If You Can Keep Your Head”: What does Brexit Mean for the Engineering Development Trust?

By Guest Blogger: Tess Gallacher

School Programme Assistant at EDT Scotland. Author, Poet and Journalist.

“If you can keep your head when all about you   

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 

But make allowance for their doubting too”

-Rudyard Kipling 

On Thursday 23 June 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union. As one of the UK’s leading 

STEM charities, the Engineering Development Trust stands with the people of Britain in wondering 

what the future holds for all of us. 

Not only has EDT formed strong bonds with young people, educators and industry leaders across the 

UK; we have also pledged a wide range of opportunities to the next generation of the UK’s 

technologists, scientists and engineers. However daunting the days to come may seem, our 

responsibility to the young people involved in our programmes remains a constant. 

Some of the young people involved in EDT’s Go4SET program shared their thoughts on dealing with 

their own personal challenges as they completed their ten-week Engineering projects. 

“The [Go4SET] project was challenging at first,” said David of St. Andrew’s Secondary School. 

“We had to do a lot of work in our own time, during lunch and after school,” added Cody, Florence and 

Grace of Rosshall Academy. 

It seems, then, that our young people are not exactly strangers to adversity and hard work themselves. 

What advice can we take from their experiences as we move forward? 

Pupils of Lourdes Secondary School had the perfect solution to the problems they faced.

“We didn’t just become more confident in our Science and Maths classes; we learned how to work  

together as a team.” 

“I think it brought us closer together [...] having to work as a team helped us to become better friends,” 

said Megan of Boclair Academy. 

By working for a common purpose, all the pupils taking part in this years’ Go4SET program completed 

their projects, coming together to recognise each others’ great achievements at the Celebration and 

Assessment Day. Teamwork, clear goals and creative thinking also made it easier for EDT’s young 

participants to make some tough decisions, the biggest being that of their future career paths. 

“I think I want to study science now: it’s interesting and challenging,” said Ava of St. Andrew’s 

Secondary School. 

“Go4SET has definitely solidified my decision that I want to study science,” Lisa adds. “I would just 

warn [younger pupils] a little bit that you do have to do a lot of work, but it’s really worth it.” 

Sometimes the goals we have yet to achieve can seem intimidating, or the horizons too far away to 

reach, but EDT’s Go4SET teams have their sights fixed with optimism on our shared future. 

“It’s quite scary to think about how much energy we waste,” said Eilidh of Boclair’s Eco Hotel project. 

“But it’s opened my eyes to new sources of energy we could use.” 

For Lisa, linking the new skills her team have learned with a real life-context made for a more 

interesting and solution-focused project. 

“We know what we can do with the things we’re learning now,” Lisa added. “We know how we can make a difference”. 

The ambition and resilience of EDT’s young participants personifies Rudyard Kipling’s famous 

celebration of triumph in the face of adversity, If-. 

“If you can fill the unforgiving minute 

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!” 

The Engineering Development Trust prepares young people for a future in STEM. Perhaps the most 

important lesson we can learn in the uncertain times ahead is just how much they could teach us. 

If we can do that, we’ll be alright.