By Duncan Newman, Economic Development Officer
We know there is a skills gap in the Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing sector locally but how do we encourage more students to choose the sector for their career?
Jon Ginda, Director for Aeroflex Hose and Engineering Ltd, has developed a successful work experience programme which has been taken up by students from local schools and colleges over the past few years. Jon said, “Work experience not only benefits the student but the employer too. At Aeroflex, we use the work experience placement to offer our supervisors and employees the chance to “oversee the work of the student.”
We provide the student with a mentor which is usually one of our Management Team, and a buddy who is usually one of your younger employees which will benefit both the business and the student. Doing this enables our teams to gain experience in managing/supervising the student.
We plan each placement in advance, ensuring the student is offered a variety of experiences during their time with us. Each student completes their own project during the placement to give them a sense of pride and achievement.
Work experience also assists us with our recruitment, retention and succession planning enabling us to identify potential engineers coming into the industry which allows us to plan ahead for our existing staff.”
Billy Stanley, a previous Work Experience student with Aeroflex said, “I worked at Aeroflex for one day a week as part of my A level for Brockenhurst College. I gained a lot of knowledge and felt that I had the opportunity to contribute to the work I was involved in.”
From this September, The Grange School, Christchurch will be offering the BTEC Level 3 in Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing to Year 12 and 13 students.
Rob Palmer, Assistant Headteacher, said, “We’re delighted to offer this opportunity to our students. Part of the course is a 6 week work experience placement with an Engineering business and employers interested in offering a placement to a student can contact me at the school for more details.”