Our impact
We help young people open doors to opportunities they never imagined.
Where skills meet opportunity
For the past seven years, we’ve partnered with schools, mentors and industry to bring hands-on learning and real-world challenges to life.
But our impact is far bigger than robots and coding. It’s about building skills, sparking ambition and opening doors for those who face the biggest barriers. That’s why we’re More Than Robots.
“It’s amazing seeing young people at completely different developmental points – socially, cognitively and skills-wise – breaking down those barriers, and being able to communicate with each other and make each other feel welcome.”
Adam Slattery, Teacher and Team Lead, Co-op Academy North Manchester
More than numbers
We delivered over 100,000 impact hours in 2025. This reflects seven years of UK delivery, powered by nearly 40 years of global FIRST know-how. But the story goes beyond the hours, it’s about skills, confidence and a more inclusive STEM pipeline.
In 2025, our beneficiaries were:
50%
underserved households
44%
girls or non-binary
37%
ethnically diverse
20%
neurodiverse or SEND
71%
now wish to pursue a career in STEM
The stories behind the stats
Our impact is in the stories of the young people, volunteers and communities whose lives are transformed by the More Than Robots mission every day.
Mentoring from industry
Joss uses his experience as a Software Engineer to help us show young people what’s possible in STEM.
Read Joss' story
Reaching for the stars through robotics
Hailing from the North West of England, these young innovators compare the challenge to the space race – they know it’s helping them unlock their potential for years to come.
Read InCTRL's story
From robotics champion to community inspiration
A talented public speaker, relatable mentor and aspiring project manager, FIRST Tech Challenge UK gave Joel the confidence to find who he is and where he belongs in STEM.
Read Joel's story
Girl power in STEM
These young women from teams Equuleus and Delphinus are working to close the gender gap in STEM and inspire other young women across the globe.
Read their stories
Small in number but big in ambition
This mighty duo from an Alternative Provider have pushed boundaries and expectations in robotics for young people outside mainstream education. The challenge is exactly what they’d (unknowingly) been waiting for.
Read Earth, Wind & Wire's story
The team that's always hungry for more
P4F Robotics is a community of diverse, excited young people destined for greatness. The challenge has been a launchpad for team members’ further success and skills development.
Read P4F Robotics’ storyPowered by industry volunteers
In the 2024-25 season, our volunteers contributed more than 5,000 hours of event volunteering. Real engineers show up, get involved and power our programme.
- Mentor teams through real-world engineering challenges
- Model diverse STEM pathways
- Show young people they’re capable problem-solvers
“The members of our robotics team were not that confident previously. But FIRST Tech Challenge UK has helped these young people to express themselves and find their self-confidence, and this is all possible thanks to the support of volunteers.”
Justine Ehimen, Team Lead for P4F Robotics
Join the movement
It takes a community to be More Than Robots. When we work together, young people discover what they’re truly capable of.
Collaborators
Proud member of
The Skills Builder Partnership includes 600+ schools and colleges, 200+ impact organisations and 100+ top employers – working collectively towards the mission that one day, everyone will build the essential skills to succeed. Their work is underpinned by the Skills Builder Universal Framework, which shows how to build essential skills at every stage of life.
Proudly fuelled by
Smiths designs, manufactures and delivers engineering solutions for mission-critical applications, solving some of the world’s toughest problems for customers, communities and our world.
Proudly fuelled by
From mail sorting technology to helping build the UK’s first commercial spaceport, to supporting the UK’s strategic deterrent building key parts of every F-35, Lockheed Martin UK supports the UK’s defence, security and prosperity.
Proudly fuelled by
Purposeful Ventures partners with social entrepreneurs and philanthropists to improve the education and well-being of young people from their earliest years. We do this by selecting, accelerating and, where we find a gap, incubating organisations which tackle particular issues. Together, we test and scale effective solutions and influence system change.
Proudly fuelled by
Marshall Wace is a leading provider of alternative investment solutions, dedicated to creating long-term relationships with their clients built on trust and integrity. They are on a continuous quest for improvement and innovation.
Proudly fuelled by
Established in 1958, the Garfield Weston Foundation is a family-founded grant-maker that gives money to support a wide variety of charities across the UK. Since it was established, it has donated over £1.5 billion, of which over half has been given away in the past 10 years.
Proudly fuelled by
Since 2018, the Intuitive Foundation has been dedicated to promoting health and advancing education through grants for a range of purposes, including science, technology, engineering and maths-related educational programmes.
By paying the real Living Wage, employers are voluntarily taking a stand to ensure their employees can earn a wage which is enough to live on.
Proudly fuelled by
RTX is accelerating ideas to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges by bringing together the brightest, most innovative minds across aerospace and defense. They push the limits of known science and redefine how we connect and protect our world.
Proudly fuelled by
The Gene Haas Foundation was established in 1999, by Gene Haas, founder and owner of Haas Automation, Inc., to support the needs of the local community.
Accredited by
CREST is the British Science Association’s scheme for STEM project work that inspires young people to think and behave like scientists and engineers.
Proudly fuelled by
Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas.
Accredited by
Industrial Cadets is a nationally recognised scheme connecting young people with employers to run accredited experiences across the UK.
Funded by
The Department for Education’s vision is for an education system that prepares young people for life in modern Britain, regardless of their background or where they grow up.
Inclusion partner
Arm architects the pervasive intelligence. Arm-based chips and device architectures orchestrate the performance of the technology.
Proudly fuelled by
We are engineers, scientists and strategists. We come from diverse cultures and have unique perspectives. We focus on a single goal – invent mobile technology breakthroughs.
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