Launched in 2013 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Tomorrow’s Engineer’s week celebrated its one year anniversary from the 3rd – 7th November 2014 inviting hundreds of engineering companies to get involved in encouraging and educating children about the engineering industry and just how much of an impact it has on our everyday lives.
Stated in a recent article in the British Plastics and Rubber magazine, “the shortage of young talent and appropriately qualified manpower in the plastics industry has been all too apparent for a number of years now” which has led to Verity O’Keefe, Employment and Skills Policy Advisor at EEF, arguing that it is now vital we update and educate young people about the wealth of opportunities that are on offer within the engineering industry.
Tomorrow’s Engineers is aimed at inspiring the next generation of engineers through increased involvement and awareness of engineering activities in the hope of altering perceptions of engineering.
As people working in the engineering or manufacturing industry will know, the industry is booming. Again, an article in the British Plastics and Rubber magazine has stated has the UK manufacturing sector has had a great start to the final quarter of 2014, with rates of expansion in production and new business accelerating; it is a great industry to be involved in.
Here at Omega Plastics, we are no strangers to educating the future generation and we believe it is crucial that we do so. Over the past two years we have been involved in a number of educational visits and presentations that have allowed us to inform and educate students about the manufacturing and engineering industry.
Earlier in the year Omega Plastics invited 18 product design students from Gordonstoun School to visit our Blyth facility. Their A-Level program required each of the students to understand the materials and various manufacturing and engineering processes used to produce commercial products and so the students spent their day with some of our experienced engineers as they gained a greater insight into tool-making and moulding processes that take place here at Omega Plastics. Read more on this story here.
Hosting educational visits is a great experience for everyone at Omega and we are hoping that our next visit from Northumbria University design students will be just as successful as our previous visits.
