21st September, 2015
Yad and Zhin, from Lipson Co-Operative Academy, have successfully completed their silver level Industrial Cadets award, after spending a week at Source.
Last week Source Engineering welcomed A level students Yad and Zhin from Lipson Academy, Plymouth, to the company to complete the Industrial Cadets Silver Award. The week consisted of a pre-planned programme of activities based around a live project we are currently working on, and culminating in a presentation to the team at Source that also doubled as new product training.
Yad and Zhin's week was spent following through a design brief for a new product and seeing what is involved at each stage. Source Engineering has been involved in all stages of this product, from the initial design, tool making and bespoke automation through to the actual manufacturing, so they gained valuable experience of the whole process.
Activities included assessing a design brief and researching the potential market, PLC (programmable logic controller) programming of electronics and pneumatics, learning about our production processes, some machining and learning about our toolroom capabilities, including EDM wiring, CNC milling and hole starting.
Their presentation on the Friday summarised their week and what they had learnt in their time with us. It also included information on the soon to be launched product, explaining to staff who have not been involved with the project yet, the potential volumes, applications, processes and specifications of the new part.
We enjoy working with local schools and promoting engineering as a future career choice and were keen to get involved, as we realise the issues arising due to the current skills shortage in the UK. We regularly work with Lipson Co-Operative Academy and we were pleased to hear that they both enjoyed their Industrial Cadets experience at Source.
We were very impressed with how much the students had managed to achieve in their 5 days. Yad and Zhin are both extremely bright and confident students, with excellent presentation skills and enthusiasm to learn, it was a pleasure to have them here. We would like to wish them the best of luck as they undertake their final year at Lipson Academy, and for the future, as they both wish to study engineering at University.
Industrial Cadets is a great way to provide young students with hands on experience in the workplace. The initiative is designed to help grow a future talent pipeline, encourage young people into careers in industry and alleviate the skills shortage we are currently experiencing in the UK. More information is available at www.industrialcadets.org.uk
