Plymouth Manufacturers’ Group celebrates Make UK’s National Manufacturing Day 2024 with local manufacturing member companies opening their doors to the community and hosting stands at Plymouth’s biggest schools careers fair, Launchpad Live.
Local manufacturers in Plymouth and Torbay including Aldermans, Kawasaki, Hymid, Babcock, Princess Yachts, BD, Rittal-CSM, Schneider Electric and The Cornwall Bakery all took part in schools out-reach activities as part of National Manufacturing Day 2024.
Across the country, British manufacturing companies opened their doors to give their local communities the chance to see first-hand the potential careers and jobs on offer in our exciting and diverse sector.
During the fun day, PMG members invited young people to take part in a series of events.
Plymouth Metal sheet fabricator, Aldermans, encouraged school children and college students to have a go at augmented reality welding and building mini aeroplanes from sheet metal.
Kawasaki Precision Machinery welcomed school children into their world-class premises for a factory tour to see how their industry-renowned hydraulic pumps and motors are made and the career pathways on offer in Kawasaki Group here in Plymouth and globally.
While Hymid, a technical injection moulding specialist in Torbay, created manufacturing games and activities designed to inform and inspire 45 GSCE students as to the opportunities on offer in the plastics industry.
Further PMG members celebrated National Manufacturing Day by running activities from stands at Plymouth’s biggest multi-Industry schools careers fair – Launchpad Live at Plymouth Life Centre. Situated in the Manufacturing and Engineering Zone and alongside members Babcock and Princess Yachts, the PMG team hosted a PlymouthMakes.co.uk stand to showcase some of the products made in and around the Plymouth area. They were joined by a collection of their member companies including BD, Rittal-CSM, The Cornwall Bakery, and Schneider Electric who also have plans to open their doors to students in the coming weeks. Activities on the stand involved a mystery object quiz, a guess the (huge) number game to win giveaways, and metal sheet folding tasks. The secret compartment to the Trunki made by Magma Moulding generated a lot of intrigue amongst the school children who were enthralled by the genius of design involved in this well-known product.
At each location, visitors also had the chance to talk directly to members of staff about how the manufacturing company works and what opportunities might be available for them.
Across the UK, National Manufacturing Day 2024 was open to all age groups, from school leavers to more experienced workers looking at reskilling to consider the possibilities of a career in manufacturing and also gave companies the chance to let their whole community understand more about the businesses on their doorstep.
Karen Friendship, M.D of Aldermans and Chair of the PMG said:
“National Manufacturing Day is such an exciting day that provides real-life behind the scenes access so that people of all ages can see for themselves what working in manufacturing and engineering is really like. We love seeing the surprise on people’s faces, and hope that we encourage more people into such an amazing sector right here on their doorstep.
Plymouth is one of the UK’s top cities for manufacturing and engineering, with the highest concentration of manufacturing employment of any city in the South of England. 1 in every 8 people is employed in manufacturing in Plymouth and the UK is the 8th largest manufacturing nation in the world. The opportunities are here and as a local employer we are passionate about passing on skills and encouraging the next generation of engineers and makers. It has been fantastic to meet such enthusiastic young people at this year’s National Manufacturing Day – we hope we’ll be seeing some of them applying for work experience placements and apprenticeships with our manufacturers in the near future!”
Manufacturing covers a wide range of sectors including aerospace, engineering, chemical and pharmaceutical, food and drink, defence, automotive and renewable technologies.
Stephen Phipson, CEO of Make UK, the manufacturers organisation added:
“This is a really exciting day where the manufacturing sector came together to celebrate the amazing things that Britain designs and makes.
“Britain’s manufacturing companies are at the forefront of global renewable technology development and some of the most innovative engineering developments seen anywhere around the world. This is a sector with amazing opportunities and we hope National Manufacturing Day has given people who have never had the chance to see inside their local businesses just what is going on and the opportunities available to them.”