WHOOSH! Here was the place where dreams really soared to the skies; where the prospect of a job really WAS rocket science.

Knaresborough and Harrogate Lib Dem MP Phil Willis joined two "pupilnauts" taking part in the two-day Skillsfest exhibition at the Yorkshire Showground, in Harrogate.

In the shadow of the 13-metre high Nova/Starchaser 4, the biggest rocket ever launched in the UK, Nidderdale High School pupils Laura Turner, and Sarah Larner, both aged 14, made their own pneumatically-powered paper rockets.

They were among more than 1,000 secondary school pupils from all over York and North Yorkshire who converged on the Yorkshire Events Centre on Wednesday and yesterday.

Waiting for them were 90 companies from across the region who prepared special "hands on" workshops at the careers event to prove to the youngsters that their industries were fascinating and even fun. Pupils were also able to "have a go" at taking plant cuttings with the Royal Horticultural Society, putting together a short news item with City Studio, making bread with Bettys & Taylor's, using radio systems employed by the British Army and flying high on an RAF flight simulator.

They were joined by the likes of Mr Willis, himself a former headmaster, who is the Lib Dem spokesman on education and skills.

Afterwards Paul Murphy, executive director of NYBEP, the North Yorkshire Business and Education Partnership, which organised Skillsfest, declared the annual event a huge success.

He said today: "This is the time of year when young people are thinking about choices for GCSEs and A-Levels as well as degree courses. If we have succeeded in making even a small number of them think about these activities, and how they relate to their future, we will have done our job.

"As a region we are losing skilled people, exporting our graduates and yet employers are complaining that there is a skills shortage, so we are trying to put right something that has obviously gone wrong."

Len Cruddas, the chief executive of the 700-member York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said after his visit: "It was very impressive I began to wonder whether I should blag my way into a new career!

"It is too easy for youngsters to get swept away with dreams of being pop stars or footballers, but here they could see that being an engineer doesn't mean having grubby fingernails; and they can see the excitement of succeeding in business."

Rocket-watchers please note: The Nova/Starchaser 4 - a prototype rocket - was launched on November 22, 2001, soaring about a mile high in only 15 seconds, although it is capable of launching a person in the nosecone 30 miles - halfway to space.

Updated: 11:01 Friday, December 03, 2004