Aerospace Growth Partnership

With the value of deliveries for the first half of 2018 being worth up to £13billion to the industry, the UK aerospace sector continues to break records for deliveries and total order backlog.

According to Paul Everitt, Chief Executive, ADS Group Ltd (the trade organisation representing UK aerospace), “The Aerospace Growth Partnership [AGP] and the Aerospace Technology Institute [ATI] are playing important roles in securing new investment, despite Brexit headwinds.”

Enginuity is part of the Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP) – a strategic partnership between government and industry which aims to secure the future of the UK aerospace industry for the next 20 years and beyond.

The AGP was established as a vehicle to tackle barriers to growth, boost exports and grow the number of high-value jobs in the UK. To do this the AGP is identifying the market challenges that form barriers to growth and is developing initiatives to address these specific challenges.

Initiatives that support this are:

 

Partnerships with University Technical Colleges (UTCs)

 

A UTC is an industry-orientated school designed for ambitious young people, aged 14-18, who have aspirations to become future innovators. They are funded by the government, are free to attend, and are sponsored by a number of successful companies.

UTCs offer technically oriented courses of study (around 60% academic / 40% practical), combining National Curriculum requirements such as GCSEs and A Levels with technical and vocational elements. They also teach business and ICT and offer clear routes into higher education or further learning in work. The study day is longer than in a typical school and is more in line with a commercial working day.

Could your company’s involvement with University Technical Colleges help to produce your employees of the future? If you would like to know more, please click here.

 

Aerospace Industrial Cadets Programme

 

The AGP is lending its support to tackling the industry’s skills shortage at its root through the Aerospace Industrial Cadets Programme (AICP).

The AICP enables companies in the sector to deliver high quality workplace experiences to young people in their recruitment catchment area. This ensures that as many suitable candidates as possible are encouraged to study subjects relevant to aerospace careers and that they are aware of and inspired to enter into jobs that are available in the industry.

Mark Stewart, HR Director and Country Manager at Airbus, and Chair of the Aerospace Skills Working Group within the Aerospace Growth Partnership, said:

“The Aerospace Industrial Cadets Programme provides a flexible framework for all sizes of employers to enable them to run accredited workplace for young people. Industrial Cadets ensures that these young people can develop work-relevant skills, gives them valuable workplace experience and a nationally recognised award at the end”.

The availability of appropriate skills in the UK to support the fast-growing aerospace sector is crucial, as the industry reports a worldwide shortage of people with appropriate qualifications. The AICP Programme is an important part of the effort to reverse this trend in the UK. Alongside this new programme, there has been a special bursary fund to help students with the AICP – the Jon Dennison Bursary fund. Please click here for further information.

Companies in the Aerospace sector who would like explore working with the Aerospace Industrial Cadet Programme should contact Clare Hall [email protected] or 01707 871528 view this short video and visit www.industrialcadets.org.uk.

 

Jon Dennison Bursary Fund

 

The Aerospace Growth Partnership created a bursary to honour the late Jon Dennison who had a distinguished career in aerospace engineering.

Each year this fully funds around 15 students on Headstart courses and supports with travel expenses where needed.

Headstart is a taster programme run by EDT for Year 12 students who are studying science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects and are potentially thinking about university but need more support to inform their decision.

The residential courses take place at some of the top universities in the country and are designed to give a flavour of many different aspects of engineering whilst offering guidance on the career opportunities a degree course might lead to.

If you are partnering with any schools that you think would have students interested in applying for the bursary, please click here for more information.