From giving time to talk about life on one of the world's greatest engineering challenges to serving aboard Royal Navy submarines, staff at BAE Systems in Barrow volunteer thousands of hours of their time annually.

Almost 3,000 hours of help have been recorded with staff on target to smash last year's total.

In 2018 more than 4,000 hours were recorded on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects alone. Much of the work is led by BAE Systems' social responsibility senior advisor Neil Doherty.

"The number of people willing to give up their own time to help others is really heartening," he said. "We've a thriving network of STEM ambassadors who go out and about to support schools in Furness and beyond in spreading the word about science."

A recent event at Barrow Island School saw children make use of Lego to work on a variety of fun experiments and students at North Walney School will experience a similar project later this month.

The annual Top of the Form inter-school challenge sees sixth formers from several schools compete for prizes as part of an event run by BAE Systems apprentices.

In the coming weeks employees will be taking part in Barrow Carnival.

With Volunteers' Week aimed at highlighting collaborative ways of offering help, the hope is more staff will take an interest.

Mr Doherty said: "If we can connect with organisations that need our help we can marry up the opportunities that are on offer."