Teaching professionals and careers advisors will take the first steps to ‘See Inside Manufacturing’ this month, when automotive companies across the UK open their doors to demonstrate the extensive and diverse range of careers and skills opportunities available to young people.
Supported by the Automotive Council and launched by Business Secretary, Vince Cable, in March this year, the initiative is part of the government’s drive to encourage young people to consider careers in engineering and manufacturing and sets out to challenge existing perceptions of UK manufacturing within the automotive industry.
Vince Cable said: “The UK is one of the biggest manufacturing nations in the world and building on this success in the decades to come will be the young people in school and college now. This is a potentially life changing opportunity for these young people to see whether they could fulfil their potential in any one of the wide range of careers that manufacturing has to offer them. I am hugely optimistic about the true picture of British industry these events will paint and hope that it shows where some persistent myths about manufacturing are wide of the mark.”
“The scope and scale of the automotive sector presents a huge array of opportunities for young people to embark on careers within industry,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. “Over 700,000 are people employed by UK automotive within retail, design, engineering, manufacturing, aftermarket and supply chain sectors. In June, teachers and careers advisors will have the opportunity to experience first-hand what it means to work in the automotive sector and to learn about the exciting range of careers and skills opportunities for young people.”
Designed to offer a flavour of the activities that will be rolled out over 10-21 October, June will see 17 automotive companies across the UK, including BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren Automotive, open their doors to offer teachers, careers advisors and university professionals an insight into working in the automotive industry. They will be invited to take part in guided plant tours, Q&A sessions with automotive apprentices, attend vehicle assembly and testing demonstrations and get a ‘hands-on’ opportunity to experience automotive engineering.
The full fortnight of activities in October as part of ‘See Inside Manufacturing’ will see more than 30 companies across the UK offering an even broader range of activities and inviting students, school leavers and graduates to take part. ‘See Inside Manufacturing’ is expected to be extended to the wider manufacturing sector, but UK automotive will be trailblazing the initiative this year.
Click through to find out more about ‘See Inside Manufacturing‘ and the activities being staged across the UK on and around 29 June.
