Recognition for Syngenta UK’s achievements in STEM inspiration

We are proud to have achieved Highly Commended for the Inspirational STEM Employer category at the STEM Learning STEM Inspiration Awards. The achievement acknowledged Syngenta UK’s strong track record of delivering impactful STEM initiatives over many years across the UK.

Jim Morton, External Relationship & Partnership Manager UK, and Catherine Bird, Communications Associate at the House of Lords collecting the award

The award recognised the following:

Outstanding commitment

We work closely with local school, colleges, universities and careers service providers to help educate students about our industry, discover new talent and demonstrate how STEM is at the heart of our organisation. This includes offering work experience, apprenticeships, visits to R&D and Manufacturing sites, attendance at careers and STEM fairs, school talks and online resources.

This year we contributed to STEM events across the country. For example, the Generation Science programme organised by Edinburgh science, STEM at the Helix, Open Farm Sunday, the Big Bang Fair and New Scientist Live. At these events, ambassadors shared their experiences and roles within Syngenta and how STEM contributes to agriculture.

This year was our first Big Bang experience. We had 42 ambassadors, from 5 geographically distributed sites who showcased the latest science and technology in agriculture and showed how STEM subjects are critical to agriculture

Innovative engagements

Innovation is at the heart of our business and ambassadors are always keen to find innovative approaches to STEM engagements. For example, during the last 17 months, Huddersfield Manufacturing site welcomed 18 different schools and 700 students to our Community Science Lab.

Our online Learning Zone provides an accessible platform full of resources to back up engagements with the students. For example, the Syngenta Farm Tech iDEA badge aims to inspire learners about careers and technologies in agriculture through interactive quizzes and games. There is also a fun and interactive game based on real precision agriculture technology called Lettuce Hero.

At our Hudderesfiled Community Science Lab students spend time doing experiments on filtration and distillation and also visit a production facility to see how work in the Lab is scaled up for production.

STEM imbedded in our culture

There are dedicate platforms to allow ambassadors to share their stories and arrange future opportunities and engagements.  We offer a breadth of activities that appeal to a range of colleagues at all levels of the organisation. This gives them the freedom to engage and create projects that they are passionate about personally.