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A group of budding engineers have taken to the stage with the Made In The Midlands Young Inventors Award, hosted by students from Central College Nottingham, the six enthusiastic pupils presented individual projects from their college courses to a panel of Made in the Midlands member manufacturing & engineering MD’s.The projects consisted of a variety of engineering designs and creations that students Lewis Parnell, Callum Bradford, Bailey Parker-shand, Matt, Smith Joe Nawaqahiva and Chris Carhill had put together as part of their engineering design projects; each showing a unique insight into the young engineering minds of today. Stephen Bilson, engineering training coordinator from Central College Nottingham said. “It’s great to see our young students grasp the opportunity to show off their talent to directors of local manufacturing companies, and from a variety of backgrounds. It goes to show that the skills they learnt at college have multiple applications for future jobs.”
The Made in the Midlands Young Inventor Award is run by the Made in the Midlands Group, based in Wolverhampton a network of just under 300 top manufacturing and engineering companies across the Midlands which represents around £3 billion of Midlands manufacturing output . The Award is supported again MHA MacIntyre Hudson in Birmingham for the second successive year, facilitating the opportunity for Made in the Midlands Members to go in and interact with the next generation of young engineers coming into our sector. Since 2012, Made in the Midlands has run a series of judging panels at Colleges across the Midlands where students present an innovative design concept to a panel of our Made in the Midlands Members. This Award consistently represents the most engaged reception and applause from our successive events as our members and audience recognise how important it is to nurture talent coming into the sector.
Chris Barlow of MHA MacIntyre Hudson said “We are delighted to be sponsoring the Young Inventor award for the second year running and working with Made in the Midlands on this. Having seen, first hand, the innovative thinking that the engineers of the future are putting into their projects leads us to believe that the industry is in good hands.” “Our merger, in July, of MHA Bloomer Heaven and MHA MacIntyre Hudson brought together two firms who had worked closely together via the MHA association for the last four years. Both firms have worked and continue to work closely with manufacturing and engineering clients which includes a yearly survey which is submitted to Government.”
Made in the Midlands Chief Operating Officer, Charles Addison explains the format of the Award; “The members benefit from being involved as it helps them shape the future curriculum of what youngster are being taught by meeting with College Staff and they are keen to give back to the sector.
The College staff benefit because they get to meet potential future employers for their students and better gauge the needs of industry and the students benefit through seeing the opportunities that working for a family run or owner managed firm in the region can offer over the popular career paths such as JLR.” Made in the Midlands is always looking for firms to come together and be part of our judging panels which will be going into College’s across the Midlands in 2015 and 2016.
QTS Ltd is a wire racking company that has recently re-shored its manufacturing plant to the Nottinghamshire area. Managing Director, Shaun Ingram, was one of the judges on the day. “This event has given me a good insight into what local colleges are teaching their students for a job in the manufacturing and engineering industry. It has proven to be a fantastic experience and, as an organisation has encouraged me to work closer with local colleges in the area.”
Chief Operating Officer Charles Addison summarised; “The Young Inventor Award is arguably one of the most important projects we run at Made In The Midlands. Over the last few decades, manufacturing and engineering has suffered and it has deterred subsequent generations not to get involved in a career making things. However, in recent years, as we have seen signs of engineering bouncing back and we are now entering a new age of engineering, full of variety - led by quality and design not cutting prices. To keep this going we need to encourage our students to come back, and to bring their bright minds with them."