YOUNGSTERS from a number of Suffolk schools will face a stern test next week when they take part in an exercise to deal with a disaster in Harwich Harbour.

YOUNGSTERS from a number of Suffolk schools will face a stern test next week when they take part in an exercise to deal with a disaster in Harwich Harbour.

More than 100 students aged between 14 and 15 will take part in the Haven Container Ports Exercise 2006 - a challenge to test their ability to deal with a live and developing emergency, and to get different organisations to work together to tackle the incident.

It will also develop their abilities to work in teams with students from the different schools being mixed up together on the day.

The challenge is organised by the Suffolk Education Business Partnership and the Haven Gateway Partnership and will be held at Kesgrave Community Centre from on October 19.

Felixstowe port corporate affairs officer Rachael Jackson said: “The purpose of the exercise is to make students from schools based within the Felixstowe and south Suffolk locality aware of the growing employment opportunities within the Haven Gateway, with a particular focus on the ports and logistics sector.”

With the ports at Felixstowe and Harwich set to grow enormously in the next decade there will be thousands of new jobs available and officials are keen that students explore the possibility of working in the shipping sector.

At Felixstowe, there are more than 600 different jobs - ranging from engineers to office workers, emergency staff to hauliers, quayside workers to cooks.

The students will deal with an imaginary incident in which several vessels are damaged in the harbour and have to make important decisions to respond to the ever-changing conditions as they bring the different emergency services and port authorities into action.

Joining them on the day will be officials from the port, Harwich Haven Authority, Johnson Stevens Agencies, Norfolk Line, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, RNLI and county council emergency planning team.