Kate Edwards
Director, J8 Precision Ltd
How has your company engaged with young people and the community to improve the image of manufacturing?
We are planning to give both factory tours to local schools and colleges and give talks in local schools. I would like to use our ‘younger’ employees to do this as I believe they would engage more effectively.
What have you personally done to improve youth engagement with manufacturing?
I am so passionate about improving youth engagement within manufacturing – I really believe that if we can promote it in the right way, we will be able to have a dramatic impact on the future of manufacturing in Great Britain. There is so much talent out there that we are failing to exploit and if we don’t act on it soon we will lose it for good.
Although my company is very small, I have endeavoured to take on an Apprentice and strive to take on more over the coming years. I am excited to have the opportunity to share my passion through being an Industry Champion for Make it in Great Britain.
What more needs to be done?
Change the way we as precision engineers are perceived to society. I think that a lot of the younger generation see our sector as dirty and messy, when they want a nice office with a big desk! State of the art facilities such as McLaren and Williams F1 show that machining can be done in immaculate conditions.
The art of making something is not only fascinating but also a contribution to Britain’s economy so when the importance of this is realised, we will see a huge increase in interest towards the sector – the Myth-Buster is something that Make it in Great Britain can do really effectively.
