MSP celebrates the first ever National Manufacturing Day

Today is the first National Manufacturing Day. Led by Make UK, the day is designed for British manufacturers to celebrate the sector and showcase what goes on behind the factory doors of many manufacturing sites.

A particular focus for the day is to highlight the diversity of our sector, the range of highly skilled jobs available and the amazing opportunities for reskilling and career development within UK manufacturing.

At MSP, we continuously look for opportunities to boost STEM activities and inspire students about the sector, especially in the North East. We’re proud to have been involved with a variety of activities throughout our 20 year history and National Manufacturing Day is the perfect opportunity to showcase this. Read about some of the activities we’ve supported below.

Duchess’s Community High School

We have worked with our local school numerous times, sponsoring students through various programmes or providing information about the different opportunities available in the industry.

Industrial Cadets

We recently supported six students through a 20-week Industrial Cadets programme where the team worked on a project to create an automated support system for MSP using Artificial Intelligence and Predictive Analysis.Some of MSP’s engineers acted as mentors on this project, guiding the students on their coding solutions for the project, whilst also teaching them about the manufacturing industry and basic CNC machining principles.

The programme was a massive success, with the team being nominated for the ‘Best Teamwork in the North’ award.

Read more about it here.

Vex IQ Challenge

Run by Vex Robotics, the Vex IQ Challenge is a global robotics competition comprising of 8,500 teams of primary/secondary students from 45 countries playing in over 900 tournaments. We were delighted to sponsor the Duchess’s Year 7 entrant in 2019, giving them access to more parts and components for their robot.

We were delighted to play a small part in giving students access to this excellent opportunity to help develop their skills in STEM subjects as well as their problem-solving and teamwork abilities.

Read more about it here.

Greenpower Car

MSP also got involved in supporting a team from the school compete in the Greenpower IET Formula 24. Our involvement in this project went beyond just sponsorship, with MSP engineers using their composite and engineering knowledge to guide the students on the design and build of their car.

As Design Technology Teacher, Mike Skinner, said at the time “MSP’s funding has really enabled us to push the envelope in terms of the ambitions of the team and focus on developing a competitive race car built from materials that otherwise would be out of reach”.

Mission Discovery Programme

In 2021, MSP joined other renowned businesses in sponsoring Starlight Education and ISSET’s Mission Discovery North East programme, a 5-day course led by NASA astronauts offering an incredible opportunity for young people.

During the programme, participants designed their own science experiment that would benefit humanity, either on Earth, the Moon or beyond, with the best experiment chosen to be built at NASA and launched to the International Space.

MSP is recognised as a driving force for achieving quality in complex manufacturing processes in various sectors, one of which is the Space industry, so this sponsorship opportunity was a perfect fit.

MSP’s support played a part in giving 500 students the chance to join the programme and take part in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Read more about this here.

Newcastle College

For the past few years, we have also worked with Newcastle College to develop a new Engineering with Applied Digital Technologies foundation degree. The revolutionary course was designed to give its participants the practical skills needed to join the industry and help create a future generation of digitally-enabled engineers.

Representing MSP on the Employer Advisory Board was Director of Operations, Margaret Toberty, who shared the regional challenges of recruiting digital competent engineers into manufacturing and Graeme Potts, MSP PerfectPart Engineering Manager, who shared his experience, gained from over 10 years within the industry, to inform and advise course modules to make them suitable for a sector in transition.

Read more about it here.

TechUp Women

We were proud sponsors of the first ever TechUp Women programme which gave 100 women across the North and Midlands the chance to retrain for a career in the digital and tech sector.

MSP was one of 16 industry partners of the programme, which was led by Durham University and Durham’s Professor Sue Black.

MSP’s role as sponsor involved devising course content and providing mentoring to some of the participants throughout the duration of the programme.

After the success of this relationship, MSP then partnered with TechUp’s Skills Bootcamps in 2021. In collaboration with the Institute of Coding, TechUp ran two bootcamps, one in Data Engineering and one in Software Development, the latter of which MSP was Industry Partner of.

These bootcamps were successful in bridging the skills gap in the technology and engineering sectors, something MSP is a big advocate of.

Read more about this here.

We are always on the lookout for opportunities to inspire students about STEM subjects and the world of manufacturing. If you would like to know more about our work, get in touch using the button below.