HAMPSHIRE students are being urged to enter a competition and inspire young people to take up science, technology, engineering and maths.

Energy supplied E.ON is inviting pupils aged 11 to 16 from across Southampton to write, produce, record and submit a minute-long radio commercial covering the four subjects in a way that would encourage interest in these areas.

The winning team’s entry will have its advert professionally produced by major broadcasting company UTV Media before it appears on E.ON’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

Billie-Jean Poole, senior community relations executive at E.ON, said: “As the new school term begins we’d like to remind pupils from secondary schools across Southampton to help us spread the word about how important STEM subjects are and create their 60-second radio ad.

“Many of the workshops that we run in secondary schools are aimed at enthusing pupils about STEM subjects.

“We hope that by running this competition, we’ll engage pupils in a fun way and they’ll help inspire others to get involved in these subjects and enjoy the possibilities that they can bring, both at school and within their future careers.”

E.ON has teamed up with ucreate to run the competition and provide youngsters with a work-related introduction to the tools of the media.

Adam Stebbing, community partnership operations manager at ucreate, said: “We’re excited to be teaming up with E.ON to promote STEM in an innovative and creative way.”