SEVERAL Island companies have come together to provide secondary school children with a calendar designed to raise awareness of the space industry.

6,300 calendars have been produced after Carla Sharpe the director of Space Ventures Consulting came up with the idea.

Carla said: "I am mad about space and involved in space awareness and outreach. We rely on space and use it in our lives every day and as such it is important to develop public awareness.

"I don't have an engineering background and never thought I could be involved in the space industry. That wasn't true and now I am. There are so many areas that people can get involved and I think it's important for young people to know that.

"Science and maths are important tools and space is a fun way to get that across. The calendar was a fun and informative way of reaching all the young scholars on the Island.

"The calendar shows the different aspects of space and human achievements. We included information on mankind's milestones, interesting factoids and highlighted an aspect of space with images each month. For example April is focused on the first man in space, which happened in April 1967, August is about Venus and November is about the International Space Station on which people have lived since November 2000."

Calendars have been distributed to all secondary schools. Andrew Shipley a science teacher at St Ninian's High School said: "The calendars are absolutely fantastic. It is very generous and good to see that the Manx companies sponsoring the calendar are committed to education and promoting space and the work that they are involved in to students."

Ian Longshaw, advisory teacher for the Manx Curriculum, said: "Space exploration and technology will play a huge part in the lives of today's students when they grow up and it's becoming an increasingly important area for the Island's economy.

"Students at our five secondary schools have taken part in a number of exciting initiatives relating to the Island's burgeoning role in the space industry and we are grateful to Carla and the companies who have sponsored this calendar for bringing this to the classroom."

The calendar was supported by Ashgrove Marketing, SES Satellite Leasing Ltd, Aon Insurance, CVI Technical Optics, Celton Manx and Appleby's Isle of Man office.