A DROITWICH Spa High School is the Mid Worcestershire winner in the local round of We Made It!, a national competition aimed at getting young people thinking about careers in manufacturing.

Ross Kirkpatrick’s victory was announced by Mid Worcestershire MP, Peter Luff.

Hundreds of young people across the country designed gadgets and gizmos as part of the competition, which will see two winners turn their idea into a real-life prototype.

We Made It! invited 13 to 16-year-olds throughout the UK to let their imagination run wild and design a new product.

The idea behind the competition is that the children get to see that manufacturing is about design and creativity as well as hands-on making of the products.

From fashion and video game consoles to cars and aeroplanes, there are varied industries with manufacturing at their heart and in which career opportunities exist.

Ross’ entry is one of 32 shortlisted entries selected from more than 360 entries, with local Members of Parliament choosing their winning entry to go through to the next stage of the competition.

They will now be invited to an awards reception in the Houses of Parliament on January 29, 2013 to meet Mr Luff.

He said: “I was delighted to receive a large number of entries for this competition and I would like to thank all the pupils from all the high schools who took part.

“All the entries I received were very inventive and it was a very difficult decision but I chose Ross’ design for a temperature-controlled fan as I think it was really practical. If it became a real product I would definitely buy it myself.”

The winning entry will be put before a panel of manufacturing experts later in November. They will whittle the shortlist down to six national entries and select two overall finalists, with the chance to help prototype their designs at the UK’s first Fab Lab, a digital fabrication laboratory based in Manchester.