AERALIS was very pleased to host the fourth session of this year’s engagement with the University of Bristol’s mentoring scheme last week at our Aztec West headquarters.

AERALIS joined the University’s scheme in 2022, providing mentoring to first year Engineering and Computer Science undergraduates. Mentees and mentors alike greatly enjoyed and benefited from the experience, and the relationship has continued. For this year’s final session, the students were able to get up close to our full-scale aircraft model and see some of the digital design engineering that AERALIS is pioneering.

Our involvement in the mentoring scheme is part of a wider commitment to developing opportunities for young people to experience the aerospace sector. Having said that, mentoring isn’t just beneficial for the mentees.

Research published by the Harvard Business Review showed that mentors feel an enhanced sense of meaningfulness from their work, which is demonstrably true in our experience, as AERALIS Programme Director, Colin Thornton, who led last week’s session alludes: “I’ve found it hugely rewarding to spend time with my mentees. They have continued to challenge me with interesting questions, and I hope in some way I have helped them to plot their own course into engineering as a career.”