Sophie Magee from Lisneal College designed workwear specifically tailored for female employees at Terex engineering company
Lisneal College pupil Sophie Magee came up with a workwear design which was specifically tailored for women employed at Terex.
The America-owned company is one of the North’s biggest manufacturing employers and has several sites here, including one in Campsie.
Sophie’s design was the winner of a competition earlier this year across five schools in the north west.
The 15-year-old told BBC News NI that she heard about the Workwear Challenge contest through her school’s technology club.
The workwear not only had to be comfortable for female wearers, but also meet rigorous health and safety standards.
Sophie also received a tour of Terex’s Campsie site as part of the competition and took part in a focus groups with female fitters as part of the design process.
She said the focus group helped her better understand the needs of the female workforce.
The teenager said that in order to get inspiration for her design she tried to put herself in the shoes of the employees.
“I had to see what I would like to wear if I was working there,” she said.
Sophie said seeing her design worn by people for the very first time was a surreal experience when she visited the Campsie site on Thursday.
“It was a bit scary, seeing something I had in my head on a page and then seeing it there in real life was just amazing,” Sophie said.
Sophie said she was proud of herself for winning the competition.
“My favourite subjects are technology and art so a career in manufacturing or engineering – maybe even at Terex – would be amazing when I’m older,” she said.
Lisneal College principal Michael Allen said the whole school was incredibly proud of Sophie.
“As a technology and design teacher myself, I know just how big of a deal it is to get an idea from your mind onto paper and then into reality,” Mr Allen said.
“There is not a technology teacher or even university student out there who doesn’t have that dream of seeing an idea come to life.”
Mr Allen said Sophie got a design brief as part of the competition and along with her teacher and head of department, Ms McCrudden, went about to complete her design.
The principal said the competition went out across Key Stage 3 students and Sophie’s design beat hundreds of entries.
He said both he and Sophie went down to Terex’s site in Campsie on Thursday for the uniform reveal and said that it was an amazing experience.
“I can’t thank Terex enough. They looked after Sophie so well and have given the school such a brilliant opportunity with this competition.”
Sophie was also invited to a charity fashion show event in Omagh on Friday evening.
“Her design will actually make it onto the catwalk and Sophie will be the guest of honour,” Mr Allen said.
Mr Allen added that Sophie will be presented with her own Terex uniform before they are distributed throughout the company’s plants across the North of Ireland.
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