Watch as Nissan celebrate a decade of inspiring next generation of engineers and look to double training programme thanks to £14.6m of MADE NE funding
Nissan has celebrated 10 years of inspiring the next generation of engineers and designers by announcing it's set to double its pioneering Skills Foundation STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) programme thanks to a share of £14.6m of funding.
In the last decade, Nissan has inspired over 100,000 young people to consider a STEM career through its schools education programme and the city’s biggest employer has today (March 27) announced it’s now going to double its provision to 16,000 children per year.
Officially launched in 2015 by King Charles, the then Prince of Wales, the Nissan Skills Foundation began as a single interactive workshop aiming for about 1,000 students and has now exceeded that target by more than 100 times.
To celebrate the landmark event, Nissan today (November 27) invited 200 children from seven different schools to create 300 Nissan Qashqai Lego cars on their own production line.
Adam Pennick, managing director of the Sunderland plant, said: “We have worked with 500 different schools from Alnwick in Northumberland down to Northallerton in North Yorkshire.
“The programme and today’s event is all about inspiring the next generation of engineers and designers. It’s a process that is working. We have dozens of staff working at Nissan today who have come through the Skills Foundation programme as well as hundreds across the wider industry.”
A key aspect of the initiative is to attract more girls into STEM subjects and what have previously been seen as male dominated careers.
Adam added: “It’s really important to attract girls into this industry and one of our key courses is specifically aimed at getting more girls into STEM.”
One of those alumni is Loise Haywood, who attended the first Skills Foundation event at Nissan ten years ago and now works for the car manufacturing giant.
Loise, 21, said: “The proof is in the pudding as ten years ago I was one of those children doing a similar task as the children here today. It’s like coming a full circle.
“Hopefully many of these children, particularly some of the girls, will be inspired in the same way I was and in years to come will be working at Nissan.”
As well as doubling its annual intake of children and young people onto 13 different courses, Nissan is also creating a second dedicated classroom training facility.
The expansion is thanks to a share £14.6m of funding from MADE NE (Manufacturing, Automation, Digitalisation, Electrification North East) to “create world-leading training facilities that support the region's manufacturing sector”.
A key aim of the initiative is to inspire the next generation of designers and engineers, but also to keep them here in the North East.
Adam said: “We’ve got a bright future here within Sunderland. We’ve announced the EV36Zero, ensuring that our region is at the hub of electric vehicle manufacturing. We’ve got the cars of the future and you can see with the children here today, the talent of the future.
“This is exactly what this course is about - ensuring the STEM subjects provide the building blocks of the talent we need here in the region.”
Commenting on the 14.6m of investment, Adam said: “This money will ensure the car manufacturing industry - that’s ourselves, our supply chains and wider partners - have the talent of the future to build those cars of the future.”
Also at the celebratory event was Human Resources director, Michael Jude.
He said: “To have inspired more than 100,000 young minds over ten years is a phenomenal achievement. We could not be prouder of our training team who help unearth the exciting talent of the future.
“But it’s not just about the numbers. We have dozens of current staff who attended a Skills Foundation event while at school, proof that the foundation’s work today really does produce the talent of tomorrow.
“So I am delighted to be able to announce the doubling in size of the foundation as part of our leadership of MADE NE. Reaching more than 16,000 students a year will supercharge the talent pipeline we and our supply chain partners need to build the brilliant electric cars of our EV36Zero future.”
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