The latest Made in the Midlands breakfast morning was hosted by Dudley College, who aim to help young people find a job, train for a career, prepare for university by helping them to develop the right skills and knowledge to prepare them.
The breakfast morning was hosted in the pristine Dudley Advance I: Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing facility. There is 2,800m squared feet of specialist teaching space spread across four floors. The building contains facilities for the study of engineering and manufacturing including mechatronics, electrical engineering and engineering science.
Following his visit to Dudley College in April 2015, Professor Brian Cox stated: What you have here are absolutely world class facilities for training students. Thats what you actually see here I think the lesson that you learn is that we need more of these places, a lot more actually.
Employer Engagement Manager, Georgina Barnard stated: I think it's been very successful it's great to see so many engineering and manufacturing companies from the area come to visit Dudley College today and look at the facilities at Advance I which is our engineering and manufacturing centre.
The event attracted 50 representatives of the Midlands manufacturing sector who were intrigued to discover how the College work alongside businesses. The Employer Innovation and Enterprise Zone provides real-world project or work placement elements to employers. The area allows direct access for local employers and strengthens the relationships between the providers and receivers of skills training.
Another excellent event & fantastic to see engineering getting the level of focus in FE @madeinthemids @JonLee_Recruit @EEF_Insights https://t.co/qg9tNjEH8N
— David Woakes (@Woaksiesnr) December 2, 2016
Additionally, Barnard encouraged manufacturers to host a breakfast event in the future, as she said: I think you should welcome hosting one with both hands as it is a great opportunity to showcase what you are about to lots of different businesses in one morning. The College are very keen to continue these types of events. We run events throughout the year for employees which helps to get the exposure for the college in the local area.
The CAD facilities are used to train students are 2D Autocad, Autodesk Inventor for 3D modelling and Feature CAM to convert 3D models for post processing to the CNC machines. This approach to integrated learning was driven by local employer input in the design and resourcing of the building.
Their higher skills learning is fully supported by a fully equipped engineering science laboratory offering specialist teaching in high level programmes such as HNC and HND. Barnard concluded: These events are very important and it was nice to see so many people today sharing ideas and setting up meetings. We have certainly scheduled meetings with some Made in the Midlands members.
Please visit our events page to ensure that you dont miss any of our upcoming Breakfast networking events. Our next events will be hosted by Salop Powder Coating and Hayley Group. If you are interested in hosting a Breakfast event of your own, please contact our Group Events Manager Iwona at: [email protected]