Industrial Cadet of the Year - Abike Looi-Somoye
“As well as developing hard skills and interpersonal skills, my time at Rolls-Royce showed me the importance of expanding your network; every person I met had a wealth of knowledge and experience, and effectively collaborating with them was truly the key to success throughout my year. The Industrial Cadets process improved my self-awareness, reflecting on my performance so that I could be my best every day. The leadership award, in particular, helped me realise the importance of outreach and being a positive role model. As a judge at the Go-4-Set competition, I saw the children’s genuine passion in STEM subjects, and saw how my words and actions can be influential – I look forward to developing these skills in my role as a university peer mentor and in the future in industry. My placement helped me realise what I truly value in a workplace, and so it became clear to me that Rolls-Royce is where I want to start my career. I am pleased to announce my return in September where I will begin the Operations Management graduate programme – I am so excited to start my career at Rolls-Royce!”
Abike Looi- Somoye received the ‘Industrial Cadet of the Year Award’ from His Royal Highness in recognition of the excellence of her work at Rolls-Royce on a ‘Year in Industry’ placement, a year out from her BEng Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leicester. The Industrial Cadet of the Year Award was sponsored by AkzoNobel and the headline sponsor for the event was the GFG Foundation.
Abike worked as part of a team tasked with spreading understanding and uptake of lean operations within Rolls-Royce. She quickly demonstrated a drive to deliver high quality results, so was asked to take on a wide range of activities. Normally the “Year in Industry” experience would be awarded at Industrial Cadet Gold level but Abike’s ability and commitment at Rolls-Royce led to her becoming the first person in the country to be awarded a Platinum Level Industrial Cadet Award, reflecting the extent to which she exceeded expectations for her placement.
Advocate of the Year - Callum Finch
Callum Finch undertook his work experience at Galliford Try and was awarded the winner of Industrial Cadet of the year 2017.
"Callum is making good progress with his apprenticeship – into his second year now. His perspective on his career pathway to date is invaluable when we go into schools and colleges and he can explain this to an array of young people who are keen to know they can emulate his success. He is a natural and confident speaker as he demonstrated at the Industrial Cadets Awards 2017 ceremony and continues to make a positive impression on everyone around him. He plays a key role within our Highways engineering team displaying those all-important key qualities of teamwork, reliability, trustworthiness and has gained the confidence of the wider team where even as an apprentice he is given levels of responsibility that belie both his age and experience."
Rising Star of the Year - Jordan Nicholls
"I thoroughly enjoyed my time at GE Aviation because it gave me the opportunity to network with people from my chosen career path. This inspired me to work harder towards my overall goal of being an engineer. The week was challenging and took me outside of my comfort zone. It taught me new skills that I will use in the future. Such as when James Jorden and I modified four ELMS 3 CCU integration units which are Electrical load management systems for Boeing."
Throughout the week Jordan, aged 15, demonstrated an extremely high level of career motivation, taking notes in all sessions and asking lots of insightful questions that showed his genuine interest in Engineering. Jordan showed himself to be extremely capable and adaptable, despite having never studied electronics before. He was able to learn new skills, as well as impressively keeping up with the other students in the group who were already studying their A-Levels.
He demonstrated a very mature and professional communication style for a Y10 student, collaborated very well with the other cadets, and was adept enough to always instigate conversations with the less confident cadets without ever over-shadowing them or trying to promote himself at their expense.
Changemaker of the Year - Simon Humphrey
“My role at Arm provided me the opportunity and insights to appreciate the impact that effective interventions into educational experiences that we as a business, and through my involvement, I, could have for young people. Knowing that a difference can be made and being able to leverage that by connecting with the Industrial Cadets accreditation process was something I saw as a brilliant opportunity. I consider that by ensuring a high-quality programme of activity, Industrial Cadets accreditation can be transformative. The potential to scale this is exciting. I strongly believe that a national, indeed, international standard to recognise young people’s achievements in STEM learning linked and aligned with curriculum learning objectives is vital. I want to be see that any young person irrespective of background, culture, geography or gender has an equal opportunity to access inspirational, programme based, experiences that leave them with a tangible certified currency that they can take forward into their next phase of learning.”
Simon has had responsibility for managing Arm's involvement with EDT and Industrial Cadets since he joined the company in 2013. He has expanded the number of programmes delivered, the organisation’s reach in schools and the involvement of Arm’s people mentoring and engaging with those students. Throughout this time, Simon has been responsible for encouraging the direct involvement of over 150 of Arm employees in EDT and IC programmes. In addition, through internal communication channels, he has raised awareness of these programmes to employees at a global level.
Simon also promotes change through a wide range of voluntary roles locally and nationally, including being a panel member at Engineering UK and a Board member at EDT.
In 2017 Simon designed and delivered Arm's first Industrial Cadet accredited work experience programme, a programme that will be rolled-out globally. He also oversaw formal mentor training, delivered by EDT to more than 20 Arm employees, now being supported to mentor on IC programmes for the first time, joining over 130 employees who have done so before them.
School/College of the year
“The College has been able to offer the Gold Level Industrial Cadet Award accreditation as an achievement benchmark and part of its commitment to youth social action through #IWill and Step up to Serve. The use of Industrial Cadets to enrich our programmes has been a key component of this commitment and has meant that students can use the Industrial Cadet Award on their CV's as quality mark for the placement hours they have undertaken. Staff at City College work tirelessly to help improve the life chances of our students. Supporting them through this period of change is pivotal to their success. The Pre-Apprenticeship Learning Programme gives students the opportunity to try out different business experiences for a substantial amount of time, informs them about what they want or don't want from a career and builds confidence in their own practical abilities. It allows students time and freedom to make the right choices that lead to the right decisions in a supportive and caring environment.”
City College, which opened three years ago, has a unique partnership with the Industrial Cadets aimed at enhancing its Pre-Apprenticeship Learning Programme and this programme is now in demand across other areas of the country. The success of this programme has seen 100% of students achieve the Industrial Cadets Gold Award. This achievement has made a significant contribution to 80% of students gaining an apprenticeship year upon year.
The pre-apprenticeship programme includes two days at the City College and three days in a work experience placement following a unique four-week programme which has been designed by business for business and is led by businesses who provide workshops and work-related learning visits to key industrial partners. This was co-created in partnership between City College and its Business Partnership Group, who have been instrumental in creating the curriculum students follow.
Employer of the Year
“Having worked within engineering for the duration of my career, I have experienced the vast changes in both technology and STEM related career paths. It is now even more important that young engineers for the future have a better understanding of all the amazing and exciting opportunities that are available to them. When I was first introduced to the Industrial Cadets scheme, I was sure that this was the route forward for Mazak as I saw an immediate correlation to what the scheme was trying to achieve and my own views of what a quality work experience placement should offer. Moving forward we would like to see more organisations from our supply chains and customers getting involved within the Industrial Cadets, allowing students to gain a greater insight into the many facets that go into making engineering a career of choice.”
Yamazaki Mazak Ltd, which is a leader in the manufacture of advanced technology solutions with its European Technology Centre in Worcester, has received the accolade of being the Industrial Cadet Employer of the Year from by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Industrial Cadet Awards, a high-profile event in London
Over the last four years, under the guidance of the Learning and Development team, Chris Morris and Dave Barnett, the company has considerably expanded its activity in engaging with local young people for workplace experience. In 2014 the company only engaged with four schools for workplace experience, now they engage with 18. In 2014 only 3 employees were involved with the programmes, now there are over 51 staff members involved ranging from directors, managers, shop floor staff, and now Mazak’s own apprentices, some of whom where were cadets themselves.
Judges recognition for outstanding SME Employer - M-TEC
M-TEC offers a wide range of Programme, Engineering & Design support services to their customer base, developing components, systems and processes from concept through to product realisation. They have been offering ‘Gold Level’ workplace experiences, in line with the Industrial Cadets framework. Cadets graduating at the Gold level will follow a programme defined by the activities breakdown over a minimum of 50 hours. The programme components and skills and competency framework illustrate the employability skills and personal learning and thinking skills acquired by each individual. M-TEC are passionate about this statement on their website and believe that this is the way forward to establishing renewed confidence with young people’s career path into engineering.