Terex: Londonderry schoolgirl designs female workwear

Sophie Magee from Lisneal College designed workwear specifically tailored for female employees at engineering company, Terex

A Londonderry schoolgirl has seen her workwear design for female employees at an engineering firm become a reality.

Sophie Magee, from Lisneal College, designed workwear that was specifically tailored for women employed at Terex.

The US-owned company is one of the NI's biggest manufacturing employers and has several sites here, including one in Campsie in County Londonderry.

Sophie's design was the winner of a competition earlier this year across five schools in the north west.

Speaking to BBC News NI, Sophie said she heard about the Workwear Challenge contest through her school's technology club.

The design for the workwear not only had to be comfortable for female wearers, but also meet numerous health and safety standards.

As part of the competition, Sophie also received a tour of Terex's Campsie site 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.

'Surreal experience'

The 15-year-old 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 produced and 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, you know, 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.

Principal of Lisneal College Michael Allen said the whole school was proud of Sophie

Principal of Lisneal College, 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," he said.

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 said Sophie would be presented with her own Terex uniform before they roll out across the company's plants in Northern Ireland.