THE new owners of the Goonhilly Earth Station have been inspiring students this week by hosting a work experience event for a group of students from Helston College, Truro, and a visiting group from a school in Harrogate.

Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd (GES) developed a week long program which has attracted glowing praise from students, teachers and parents.

Under the watchful eyes of GES engineers, the student activities were focussed on STEM (Science , Technology, Engineering and Maths) in a practical setting and included setting up a ground station for a satellite and computer coding. The students were also given an invaluable insight to the application of their studies in the work place and their importance to high tech employment opportunities and participants were tasked to provide a presentation as part of the program.

Piran Trezise, director at GES, said: “Inspiring local students is important for the regions sustainability. It helps contribute towards Cornwall’s future economy and increases aspiration levels by highlighting that there are some amazing opportunities in Cornwall.

“We know that our providing this type of experience is already having a positive impact having run a similar program with Helston schools last year. Feedback from pupils attending last year has shown this experience helped influence future degree choices, career aspiration and attitudes towards study.”

Last month, GES attracted professionals and academics from around the world to a highly successful Space Mission Operations course at the site which they are transforming into a high tech business park, focusing on offering secured office space with high speed bandwidth, data centre services and a full range of space-based activities including satellite communications, radio astronomy, telecommunications and science outreach. It is hoped that as part of the long term redevelopment, the visitor centre at Goonhilly will be reopened with a focus on space and space science.