COUNTY school pupils have been discovering some out-of-this-world career options right here in Oxfordshire.

More than 100 youngsters aged 12 to 15 watched talks yesterday from companies in the space industry, including European Space Agency and the UK Space Agency.

The event, at Rutherford Appleton Lab in Harwell, also included a 'careers carousel' which gave children a chance to speak to a dozen organisations about potential jobs.

Read again: School pupils hunt for Brexit-proof jobs at Mini careers fair, Oxford

Billy Wilde, 15, from King Alfred’s Academy in Wantage, said: “I’ve always been fascinated by space and I’ve always wanted to work in something involving astrophysics and computers, like programming orbits for satellites. It’s been a very interesting day and I very much enjoyed the lectures.”

Oxford Mail:

Dr Lynn Nickerson, from Didcot Girls’ School, said: “It’s fascinating because there’s a whole world out there of opportunities and science careers that we didn’t know existed before this event. It’s important for the girls to be aware of opportunities they wouldn’t have known about and this will help them make their GCSE choices.”

According to the UK Space Agency, space is one of the UK’s fastest-growing sectors and it is estimated an additional 30,000 new workers will be required by 2030.

Read again: Energy technology firms are growing fast at Harwell Campus

Latest figures from the UK Space Industry: Size and Health report show that Earth observation satellite services, such as data for climate change and agriculture, is a significant growth area, supporting £92 billion of GDP and growing at a rate of 25 per cent a year.

Beth Greenaway, head of Earth observation at the UK Space Agency, said: “Earth observation is a rapidly growing area of the space sector so it was fantastic to have the opportunity to tell so many young people about the huge variety of exciting careers available to them.

Oxford Mail:

“Our aim is that over the next decade innovative new technologies developed by the UK Earth observation space sector will make substantial contributions to economic growth, new jobs and societal benefit. It’s vital that we have enthusiastic young people coming through to help continue to realise the potential of earth observation.”

The Government’s modern industrial strategy is supporting the space sector, including through a £50m programme to enable the launch of small satellites which could be used for Earth observation.

Read again: Comics publisher is opening new film studio in Didcot

“Last week, Orbex unveiled its Prime rocket that could be used to launch such satellites from a proposed spaceport in Sutherland, Scotland.

The students attending the careers event were from Didcot Girls’ School, King Alfred’s Academy in Wantage, John Mason School in Abingdon and Space Studio in London.

Oxford Mail:

Companies taking part included Geocento Ltd, Deimos Space, based at Harwell, and Telespazio VEGA UK, which has just secured new contracts worth €12 million over the next three years.

These new contracts are from the European Space Agency and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts – both international partnership bodies we will remain members of.

Read again: 'Aspirations' careers day at primary school was a 'cool idea', say the kids

“The contracts cover climate services and quality assurance of earth observation data, from some of the most cutting edge new commercial satellite mission.

Graham Turnock, CEO of the UK Space Agency, said: “These new contract wins are an excellent example of where the UK is taking leadership on the global stage, including through our membership of the European Space Agency, and Copernicus in the exploitation and use of high quality Earth observation and climate services.

“This should enable significant impact and growth in the form of applications and space enabled services to the wider community."