Wessex Archaeology staff members Holly Rodgers and Rachel Brown visited South Wilts Grammar school as part of their roles as STEM Ambassadors. The STEM Ambassador programme encourages organisations and individuals to ‘volunteer their time, enthusiasm and experiences to encourage and inspire young people to achieve more and progress further in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)’, Wessex Archaeology supports the programme and Holly and Rachel are representatives for Wessex.

South Wilts Grammar school hosted a ‘Meet the Scientists’ day which provided the students with the opportunity to speak to people working in science and gain insight into the various roles and areas of work. There were professionals from a wide range of organisations and industries who attended the event, there were science sessions being run by people who work in science and careers talks. Holly and Rachel participated in the careers talks where small groups of students spoke to professionals about their careers, the students rotated around the different professionals so that they got a chance to speak to everyone. The lab the event was held in was a buzz of conversation and you could hear the excitement from many of the students as they realised the vast possibility of roles and professions they could go into. Holly and Rachel promoted the broad range of roles linked to STEM within the archaeological sector and provided valuable insight into how they had progressed their own careers.
 
We hope that many of the students have been inspired to pursue a career in a STEM area and that we have inspired some future archaeologists.