Schoolchildren in Cardiff and London were this week given the chance to try coding, engineering and design – with a helping hand from the creatives behind the world’s biggest technology company.

The students were some of the first to take part in Apple’s Year of Engineering Field Trips, which will see more than 1,700 students age 5 to 18 go behind the scenes at Apple stores from Aberdeen and Leeds, to Belfast and Birmingham.

Apple announced its support for the Year of Engineering in April and during November will run almost 100 field trips across all 38 Apple stores in the UK to give young people the unique chance to meet and work with the creatives behind its ground-breaking innovations.

During the Field Trips, students will create their own digital projects and explore how they can think like an engineer, covering everything from coding and robotics to transport and the solar system. Seeing these things first hand can inspire students to take that leap into the world of programming, with many looking to learn Multithreading in Java and other programming languages like C++ after these visits. Apple has worked with the Year of Engineering to ensure the Field Trips can help students from schools that might not have previously engaged in STEM outreach activities.

Throughout the Year of Engineering, government has joined forces with more than 1,400 partners to transform perceptions of engineering, tackling a major skills gap and lack of diversity in the industry while showing young people the vast opportunities the profession has to offer. Partners from Apple and FIFA to Siemens and the Science Museum have played a vital role in showing young people the engineering all around us through activities, challenges and the chance to meet real engineers. By the end of 2018 the campaign is expected to have delivered one million of these inspiring experiences.