HUNDREDS of children were inspired by computer games, energy-generating bikes and simulators made by budding apprentice engineers.

Primary and secondary pupils from across West Cumbria were given talks and demonstrations from apprentices at Energus, Lillyhall as part of National Women in Engineering Day.

Teachers were trying to out-do each other on energy-generating bikes and children were tackling games such as Whack-a-Racoon and a welding simulation challenge.

Nina Dixon, training manager at the centre, said the event was important for young people and particularly females to show them what kind of opportunities are out there for them when they finish school.

She has seen the number of female engineering apprentices increase year-on-year in what she called a "traditionally male-dominated industry".

One of those females showing off her skills on the day was 19-year-old Kelsey Ray from Workington. Kelsey, a mechanical design engineer, worked as part of a team over two weeks to create a "bopper" computer game - a light game which tests reactions.

Kelsey and another apprentice working on the "Bopper", 19-year-old Jake Skaag from Workington, said the game had been extremely popular with children and events like this were important to show younger people what they can achieve in the future.

Whitehaven's Georgia McGlennon, a 17-year-old electrical engineer, along with her friend Rachel Blinco, 17, had been working on the bike challenge and said they were so inspired by events like this when they were young, that they decided to take up a career in the field.

One of teachers who topped the bike challenge's leaderboard in the morning session was Jack Tyson of St James' School, Whitehaven.

He said: "It's good for the children to come to events like this because in the classroom, everything is a bit theoretical, whereas here they can actually see how things work."

Another teacher, Jane Lawson of Lowca Community School, said the children had been "extremely excited and enthusiastic" about the various activities taking place - with Year 5's Dylan Hodgson saying it was "awesome and cool!"

Mike Smith OBE, CEO of Gen2 said the firm has always heavily promoted engineering as a career option to females.

He added: "We have trained many female engineers since our inception and they have gone on to have very successful engineering careers. Gen2 typically recuit around 14% of females into engineering disciplines for our local employers. We hope these events will encourage others to seriously consider engineering as a career."