EDT Partners with the RAF Charitable Trust to Support Thousands of Young People

We are proud to announce an exciting new partnership with the RAF Charitable Trust, helping them achieve their mission to reach 500,000 young people by 2026. The new partnership focuses on celebrating young people’s achievements across industry through Industrial Cadets as well as headline funding of some of our charity’s programmes.

The year long partnership will see the RAF Charitable Trust become Headline Funder of Industrial Cadets and EDT delivered Key Stage 3 Experience Days, which are designed to inspire and engage young people, encouraging a positive attitude towards STEM subjects. The support of Industrial Cadets is further strengthened by the accreditation of 2 of their key programmes, ‘Road to RIAT’ and ‘BlastOff to RIAT’, delivered by Smallpeice Trust, which will mean a further 26,000 students will receive their Award, leading to prize winners attending the Royal International Air Tattoo. It is anticipated that the partnership will grow in strength from year to year.

The partnership brings together EDT and the RAF Charitable Trust’s joint vision to support every young mind, regardless of background, disability race or gender to experience and thrive in the exciting world of STEM.

Julie Feest, CEO at EDT explained, “I am delighted today to announce this partnership with such an aligned Trust. Industrial Cadets this year celebrated 250,000 Experiences, and with our work with the RAF Charitable Trust we believe our ambition to reach 1million students is a step closer. The RAF Charitable Trust and EDT both have strong ambition to work with young people awarding Industrial Cadets to help with their employment into air, space and technology. I look forward to seeing this partnership further expand and grow.”

Director at Royal Air Force Charitable Trust, Justine Morton, said: “We are incredibly excited to be announcing these partnerships and demonstrates our commitment to inspiring young people.

“RAFCT, alongside both Engineering UK and EDT are signatories of the Tomorrow’s Engineers code which asks members to inspire connection, drive inclusion showcase engineering and technology and improve impact.

“These are principles we fundamentally believe in and we are looking forward to working with them both.”

Since 2005, RAFCT has been on a mission to work with young people with these partnerships the latest initiatives the organisation supports. The new partnerships join existing programmes such as the Road to RIAT primary school competition which will reach over 500 schools.