Astronaut Tim Peake to show 'how far science takes you'

Tim Peake being carried to a medical tent after landing in Kazakhstan

Astronaut Tim Peake is to launch a £7m scheme to get more people into science, technology, engineering and maths.

Over the next four years, two projects will work with 4,200 Welsh youngsters, particularly girls and young women.

The aim is to get more students pursuing the so-called Stem subjects to GCSE level and beyond.

Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning, Eluned Morgan, said Maj Peake "showed just how far, literally, science can take you".

The projects will target women in particular after figures showed one in six workers in key science-related sectors is a woman and only 12% of engineering and technology students are female.

• Female science and engineering 'talent waste' worry

• Engineering push in valleys schools is a Welsh first

• How women can change the world in 'year of engineering'

Maj Peake returned to Earth in June 2016 after spending six months on the international space station.

During an event at Cardiff's Tramshed on Tuesday, £5.3m will be announced for Swansea University's Technocamps 2 - which will work with 3,600 youngsters, 66% of whom will be female.

Tim Peake is an ambassador for the Prince's Trust Cymru

It will target secondary schools in the valleys, north and west Wales that do not offer computer science as a GCSE option or have only recently made it available.

A further £1.9m will be announced for STEM Gogledd which will work with 600 young people, 60% female, in schools in Gwynedd, Anglesey and Conwy.

"Wales must become a Stem nation if we are to build a modern, dynamic, open economy that benefits everyone in Wales," said Ms Morgan.