SCIENCE and technology came to life for young people from across East Sussex at an event aimed at encouraging uptake in the subjects.

The Big Bang @ The Hastings Centre was the showpiece event of East Sussex STEMfest, a programme of activities aimed at encouraging young people to study or train in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects.

The event included interactive demonstrations, workshops and displays and attracted more than 300 young people from across East Sussex.

STEMfest is part of the Progress project to support young people’s career choices, delivered with funding secured by East Sussex County Council on behalf of Skills East Sussex, the county’s employment and skills board.

The project aims to boost the employability and work readiness of young people, improve work experience opportunities, reduce the number of young people not in education or training and encourage them to aspire to careers in STEM and other priority growth sectors.

Cllr Rupert Simmons, county council lead member for economy, said: “It’s vital to the economic prosperity of East Sussex that our young people have the skills businesses need.

“Science, technology, engineering and maths in particular are areas we need to encourage more young people to pursue, and an event such as this can play a big part in achieving that.

“We’re delighted the event was so successful and that the young people seemed to really enjoy the activities offered, and we look forward to the Big Bang returning even bigger and better next year.”

The Big Bang @ The Hastings Centre was delivered by STEM Sussex, an outreach department of the University of Brighton, with funding from the Sussex Learning Network and the Progress project funded by the Careers & Enterprise Company.

Activities on offer included a science show delivered by London’s Science Museum, a mobile ‘Lab in a lorry’ from Kingston University and a chance to handle various scaly creatures from the East Sussex Reptile and Amphibian Society.