Greenpower Education Trust is about preparing young people for future careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). We do this by getting them enthusiastic about it through a unique challenge; to design, build and race an electric car.

Ford has supported what we do for the last 20 years so heading to their Dunton Campus for a recent heat of the challenge was great. The weather was scorching and the track with the new array of solar panels alongside it was the perfect background.

There were two challenges going on; Formula Goblin which is for older primary school pupils and F24 which is for secondary schools. The cars have the same batteries and motor but Formula Goblin uses a different chassis and a car which is designed for short distance activities like slalom races, drag races and sprint races.

For F24, called that because they use 24 volts (currently two 12volt lead acid batteries), the teams take part in a minimum of two race heats to qualify for the leader table. The race heats run on circuits like the one at Dunton’s test track, and they have to travel as far as they can over 90 minutes.

They need to do two driver changes, and they cannot change the batteries during the race. They all use the same batteries and motors and must comply with all the regulations. But, they can innovate and develop their cars so they become more efficient.

This challenges them to gain a better understanding of how their batteries work, how their motor can be optimized and how the aerodynamics of the car effect it's efficiency. Once they understand all this, they begin looking at ways to improve their cars and be more competitive.

The results can certainly be impressive. We saw one team, PRT Raptor, manage 29.15 miles in 90 minutes, with the second and third placed teams not that far behind. That’s an average speed of about 19mph, which feels pretty fast in these cars.

We saw some great performances in the Goblin class too, with the Tropical Turtles from St.Faith’s school just pipping the Pymbles Ladies College to the win, a team that came from Australia where we’ve just started running this initiative. I also handed out some awards for ‘Greenest Bodywork’, ‘Best Bodywork’ and ‘Best Presented Team’ which was great.

The competitiveness throughout the day was immense, the youngsters were all so focused, enthusiastic, ambitious and excited. But they were also collaborative and willing to help each other. That’s one of the fantastic things, seeing young people developing essential human skills such as leadership, communication, problem-solving and teamwork.

With great support from Ford volunteers on the day, the teachers and parents, it was another glimpse into the engineers of the future. These kids should be supremely proud of their efforts.

I’m a big believer in being creators not just consumers and Greenpower is an amazing and dynamic way for young people to understand the reasons why things work and how they work. It enables them to be able to resolve problems and design ways to do things better. These are all qualities that not only future employers, like Ford, are looking for, but qualities that are essential across in so many aspects of the world as we aim to create a brighter future.

Baranabas Shelbourne is CEO of the Greenpower Education Trust