Fifteen pupils with an interest in science and engineering headed to Associated British Ports (ABP) in Hull last week, to find out more about careers and training programmes there.
The visitors were greeted by the team and given a talk on health and safety at the venue, and told about some of the things they have to deal with on a daily basis at a busy port.
The focus of the first part of the day was looking at native and non-native species
An important job for staff at ABP is ensuring that they protect our country from any invading flora and fauna that arrive as part of a cargo from all parts of the world.
Non-native species that come to our country can upset the balance of our country’s habitat, such as Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed.
Some of these will be known shipments and may be sent to quarantine. However, some may come attached to the side of a ship or hidden in cargo. These must be then identified and dealt with.
Part of this is ensuring that biodiversity surveys are completed of the area surrounding the ports to identify any rogue non-native species that may have been missed.
Pupils were tasked with exploring the embankment to take photos of any types of insect, animal and plant they could find.
During the afternoon, pupils in teams had to identify all the plants and animals in their photos, ready to be catalogued.
Following this, they were given a presentation on careers and training available at ABP, with many pupils commenting that they hadn’t realised it was such a diverse company.
ABP offers training and apprenticeships in a variety of areas from age 16.