Youth Engagement is an important element of RAF Marham’s output supporting students and young adults from groups across the region. The RAF Marham Youth Engagement team incorporates visits by Cadets from all services, Armed Forces Careers Visits, Schools and College Visits, Science Technology Engineering and Maths events and support to the Jon Egging Trust Blue Skies initiative
The engagement of the Youth Engagement teams in 2024 was unprecedented with over 13000 young adults or students visiting the Station or receiving visits to their schools or organised events.
The Cadet Liaison Officer ran events to support Air Cadets, Sea Cadets and other uniformed youth groups across the region and further afield to give them an insight into life in the military. This included visits to a variety of sections across RAF Marham and team building events linked to aviation. The cadets, in turn, support RAF Marham assisting with events such as the Friends and Families Day and Royal Norfolk Show.
The Regional STEM Engagement Team is made up of over 30 volunteer ambassadors who delivered activities in their STEM facility running 16 events at Marham over the course of the year. Within the building they have 2 VR Headset flight simulators which are a particular favourite with visitors. The team have also taken the STEM activities to 24 outreach events in schools and colleges across the region and attended 3 major events including the Royal Norfolk Show. The STEM team deliver a whole host of different activities that are age specific to the audience but they are all themed around aviation.
The Jon Egging Trust (JET): Leadership and Life Skills ‘Blue Skies’ programme, supported by RAF Marham, has been a particular success this year. The programme was set up to support children identified as having disengaged with education or lacking confidence and the visits allowed them to take part in team building activities and leadership skills to build confidence, resilience and self-belief to succeed. RAF Marham has supported the Jon Egging Trust for a number of years and 2024 was no different with 8 visits to the Station by students from 2 schools in the local area to participate in a variety of activities.
Marham Experience Days, hosted by the Station Engagement Officer, were extremely popular during 2024 with over 100 applicants, who had registered an interest in joining the RAF or progressing through their application, visiting RAF Marham to get a feel of life in the military. The students visited a number of sections to see the different roles that are available. These visits give a valuable insight into the day to day role of a service person.
RAF Marham Station Commander, Group Captain Leonie Boyd said, “Youth Engagement is hugely important to RAF Marham as the students and young people that we engage with are the future of the UK, and hopefully for some, the future of our Armed Forces; it’s a privilege to be able to provide an insight to the roles in the RAF and inspire young people to think about their future careers. It also gives an understanding of the role of RAF Marham to our local community, whose support is incredibly important to us. I am really proud of the fantastic work that the Youth Activities Team has achieved over the last year and the support that they have given to so many students and young people in the local area and further afield.”
