Put Your Motorsport Career In Pole Position At Autosport International
Your visit to Autosport International in January could lead to the start of your own career in motorsport, with some of the biggest companies and several leading universities presenting their courses and the achievements of current students at the show.
Autosport International has been supporting the engineering industry for over 25 years and features no less than 11 of the UK’s leading tertiary institutions renowned for their engineering courses.
Traditional universities such as Cranfield, Oxford Brookes, Bolton, Birmingham City and Derby will be joined by a new online course, offered by the National Motorsport Academy, which is seeing record numbers of students enrolling all the time.
The National Motorsport Academy offers the world’s first online only motorsport engineering degree course, and the first students started in November 2015. However, as the National Motorsport Academy doesn’t adhere to traditional semesters, students can enrol at any time. Since the courses went live, the Academy is enrolling between five and 10 students every week, with more than 70 currently signed up.
Visitors to the National Motorsport Academy’s stand, and all of the other universities’ stands, will be able to talk to a selection of academics teaching the courses, as well as students currently taking part.
Many of the universities will also have cars on show, with many displaying cars the students themselves have created. Oxford Brookes, Birmingham City University and the University of Derby are just some of those displaying the vehicles entered into the 2015 Formula Student competition.
The competition is organised by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), and challenges students to design, build and race a car in the space of a year. British universities faced competition from around the globe, with 135 teams taking part from places as far afield as Australia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Beth Georgiou, Formula Student Project Leader, said: “We’re delighted to be taking part at Autosport International where one of our university teams, as well as our judges, will showcase just how Formula Student helps to nurture, develop and champion the fantastic engineering talent from across the world in a live, competitive environment.”
The University of Derby entered the competition for the first time, and were awarded a £3,000 grant by the IMechE as a result of picking up the ‘Rookie Team Award’. Other British universities put in strong performances, with the Oxford Brookes and Birmingham City University cars both finishing in the top 10 of the closely fought competition, which took place at Silverstone in July 2015.
One of the UK’s leading universities, the University of Bolton, will be back at Autosport International giving potential students the opportunity to learn more about its courses and specialist facilities. In August, Bolton announced a £25 million investment into upgraded student teaching facilities, including the construction of a new National Centre for Motorsport Engineering.
Students from courses at all these institutions are in high demand, in the UK and around the world. Graduates have gone on to jobs at F1 teams such as Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren, while others have landed roles at Jaguar Land Rover, Tata, Team Dynamics, Aston Martin Racing, the British Superbike Championship and more.
Ian France, Autosport International Show Director said: “Britain is at the forefront of automotive engineering, and the universities at Autosport International are producing the core of the next generation of global talent. Anyone interested in building the cars of the future can get their career off to a fantastic start by talking to any one of the many institutions at Autosport International.”
Chris Aylett, the CEO of the Motorsport Industry Association, hailed the presence of the students and universities at Autosport International, saying: “The Motorsport Industry Association has, from its inception, supported the Careers in Motorsport section of this great show.”
“Over many years, this section has attracted the very best universities, colleges and educational organisations, which offer top class motorsport-relevant courses and qualifications that are of value when securing a career in the motorsport industry. No other country in the world has so many motorsport-based educational facilities, a fact which keeps the UK ahead of the global competition, and has consistently produced many of the leading engineers in the sport today.”
“This specialist area of the show offers potential students a fantastic opportunity to talk to the people behind such courses, as well as many currently studying them.”
Visitors attending Autosport International will also get the opportunity to learn more about the AutosportWilliams engineer of the Future Award. This exciting new annual award will select an engineering student from a UK university as a rising star of Formula 1 engineering and support them with an accelerated career development plan.
Elizabeth Thompson who is currently studying for a Masters in Engineering Science at Oxford, has won a two-year contract to work with the Williams team after being awarded the inaugural 2015 accolade.
If you are interested in pursuing a career in engineering and motorsport, then makes sure to purchase your tickets for Autosport International at www.