The joint initiative offers experience to young people taking part in the nationally-recognised ‘Industrial Cadets’ programme.
Industrial Cadets forms part of the Prince’s Trust’s Engineering Education Trust - set up by the Prince of Wales to allow students nationwide to benefit from work experience across the in-demand skill areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Through the trust, cohorts of young people are able to gain valuable experience with the aim of equipping “all Prince’s Trust young people with the STEM skills needed for employment”.
A group of 35 engineering students worked with Camloc for one week, learning directly from company directors Andy Hubbard (pictured above) and Matt Warne about Camloc’s specialist products and how they are manufactured. The students were required to complete a 30-hour project as part of the programme - spending the first and last day of the week on-site at Camloc - benefiting from a tour of the premises and carrying out a Q&A session with the two Camloc directors.
“The students were given a ‘live project’ to work on - with the brief of designing either a new blast mitigation severity indicator or quick release end fitting for a gas spring,” explains Andy Hubbard. At the end of the week, the students then pitched their product designs to a panel that included Camloc directors and teachers from Leicester College. The best group at the end of the pitch process was chosen to work up their brief further.
“Camloc has been very accommodating and provided valuable mentoring to our cadets,” said Gemma Jackson, employability and enterprise manager at Leicester College. “Both Andy and Matt were great with the students. This is experience that they simply cannot gain in the classroom and we are very grateful to Camloc for taking the time to work so closely with them.”
Hubbard applauded the application and enthusiasm of the students, and hopes to see them go on to be great success stories in the future. “The attitude of the students was great. They took everything on board that we and the college taught them across the week, and the standard of the ideas and presentations at the end was exemplary. We are looking forward to inviting the winning teams to Camloc to further develop their ideas alongside our engineers.”
Students that take part in the Industrial Cadets programme are ‘silver accredited’ upon completion and will be able to add the nationally-recognised accreditation to their CVs and portfolios.
