AT a time when the national focus is on opportunities for young people during the coronavirus pandemic, a pioneering engineering and project management consultancy has underlined its commitment to investing in the future.

REACT Engineering has shown its agility and flexibility by continuing to operate successfully throughout the pandemic and supporting businesses and organisations by solving complex challenges.

It has also continued to provide career opportunities, often for young people.

When REACT, based at Cleator Moor, recently recruited six new team members, five of the new starters were aged 18 to 24.

Tom Wright, 24, from Egremont, joined the team as a Graduate Engineer. He said: “REACT is known as an employer which supports and nurtures young talent. It was great to see five of us, all around the same age and all from West Cumbria, starting at REACT at the same time.”

REACT now has its biggest ever workforce with 42 employees.

Managing director Phil Redfern said: “We operate by encouraging smart thinking and a solution-based approach to complex issues in industry. Our mantra is that we provide ‘smart answers to difficult problems’.

“We are able to innovate, to be agile, and to provide effective and efficient solutions to problems in a range of sectors because we nurture our people, often young people, and encourage them to take responsibility from an early stage in their careers.”

REACT’s long-standing Into Engineering week, designed to inspire the scientists and engineers of the future, went ahead despite the pandemic with TV personality and famous University Challenge finalist Eric Monkman supporting this year’s programme by hosting a special webinar from his home in Canada.

The company’s evening REACTioneers club, to inspire children in the community, has also continued to operate, with young members of the REACT team leading the online sessions.

The company has also been proud to continue to support the highly-acclaimed work of the REACT Foundation which received The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service last summer.

With typical can-do spirit the Foundation found a way to host its ever popular annual Science Shows by moving to online sessions last month.

Pete Woolaghan, co-founder and chair of the REACT Foundation, said: “We know young people have missed out on a lot so we were delighted to have found a way to make this work and put on a programme which we hope the students found interesting and inspiring.”

To find out more about REACT Engineering visit www.react-engineering.co.uk