One of our Sustainability goals is to have more than 25% of our employees volunteer for global and local STEM initiatives.

Infineum UK employees, including two senior executives and STEM ambassadors, recently spent time with students from local schools, encouraging them to view Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) pathways in different ways.

Making sustainability relevant to school subjects

Our UK STEM ambassadors visited a secondary school to present a session (pictured below). Infineum Sustainability and Business Director, Maurizio Abbondanza discussed the importance of Sustainability and linked key aspects of the GCSE Chemistry syllabus throughout his presentation to make content more relevant for the students.

Maurizio explains: “I really enjoy trying to inspire the scientists of tomorrow and encourage my fellow colleagues to do the same.”

Maurizio’s presentation was followed by a question-and-answer session in which the group of around 80 students asked interesting questions to Maurizio and the team of three Infineum STEM Ambassadors.

Taking part in a face-to-face session after many online STEM outreach activities was a positive experience for the whole ambassador team. Alice Marten, Lead Technologist, Infineum, said: I started getting involved in STEM ambassador activities via video calls during the pandemic, so I really enjoyed interacting with a room full of young people interested to hear Infineum’s perspective about sustainability and careers in science.

Leaders of today sharing learnings with leaders of tomorrow

Infineum Executive Vice President of Innovation and Technology, Rebecca Oldfield also spent an afternoon discussing the topic of leadership with students between the ages of 14-16 years (pictured). She shared her perspectives, demonstrated different paths that women in business have taken and invited students to talk about how to break biases.

Rebecca says: “Being part of sessions like this is extremely rewarding and helps connect you with what our future generations are thinking, believing, and dreaming about. It helps us understand how to inspire and attract these talented people into the world of science. I would encourage everyone to invest time in helping the next generation of leaders and scientists as we work towards our 25% volunteering goal.”

Bringing science to life for younger students

Maurizio also recently visited a local primary school close to the Infineum UK Headquarters in Milton Hill, Oxfordshire. He presented to around 120 pupils between the ages of 10 and 11 years and, discussed how science can make the world more sustainable. Maurizio’s presentation supported the school’s aim to bring science to life. He said: “If children are able to see a link between their studies and what they want to do, such as saving polar bears… it will give them the right motivation and purpose to study, and they will develop the skills that we know the world needs today and will need even more tomorrow!”

Find out more about how we’re encouraging STEM in schools, colleges and universities