New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering, NMITE, chose Engineers Week, with its focus on celebrating how engineers can make a difference in the world, as the time to publish its vision for the next five years, pointing out that its descriptor, “Engineering a New Future”, resonates well with Engineers Week’s 2023 theme of “Creating the Future”.
Five core themes are explored in NMITE’s strategic plan from Academic Quality and Distinctiveness, to Inclusive Cohorts and Successful Students, but it is a third, Partnering for Impact, which is particularly relevant in Engineers Week. “By 2028, our aim is to have become a beacon of regional innovation and collaboration — where industry partners join forces with academia to create cutting-edge curricular challenges to give hands-on experience, making sure that every student is ready for what’s next in their career. Together with our network of partners, we will build a brighter future, by emboldening learners through a pioneering curriculum. Our students will be highly sought after, often receiving offers from prestigious engineering brands before they even graduate,” says James Newby, NMITE’s President and CEO.
Employment pledge has secured great job offers for half NMITE’s first graduates
This week Jesse Norman, MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire and Transport Minister with responsibility for Decarbonisation and Technology, who has supported NMITE from the very start, announced an initial group of six employer partners, ABT Products, ETL Systems, Kirintec, REHAU, TRP Sealing Systems and Welsh Water, who had together pledged 15 job offers to NMITE students, subject to a final interview, on a pay scale starting at £30,000pa. “This pledge, from these pioneering companies, is not motivated by philanthropy, but by hard business sense,” explains Norman. “They know NMITE and its focus on advanced practical skills, they have met the staff and students, and they can see the value of recruiting really talented young people locally.”
“This is fantastic news,” says Newby, before stressing that this represents the initial iteration of the “employment pledge”. NMITE is confident that, with more than a full year to go before this cohort of students graduate, more employers will join the pledge, bringing the 50% number much closer to 100%. Norman has always stressed the need to create more pathways for local young people to build up their capabilities and use them locally in existing companies, or as entrepreneurs in their own new businesses, rather than losing them out of the county.
NMITE announces pioneering teaching challenge with partner HS2
HS2 is one example of an NMITE employer partner which has set a real-world challenge for NMITE students, giving them hands-on and highly relevant experience to prepare them for the higher value jobs that promise a better future and help address the chronic shortage of skills in technology and engineering.
Kicking off in Engineers Week, the challenge is for students to pull together a media presentation to explain how electromagnetic effects are used to ‘see under the soil’ as part of the preparation phase of major groundworks. “This exposes our undergraduates to the human element of applied engineering. The thinking behind the challenge is that HS2 regularly meets a range of local people and they want to reassure them that any works carried out are at the minimum level of disruption.”
Mark Thurston, Chief Executive Officer, High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd has already spoken at NMITE (September 2022) as part of its Masterclass series of events. Thurston comments: “HS2 has always been more than a railway. As a multi-phase programme, HS2 will underpin the construction industry for years to come, improving standards, driving innovation, and bringing thousands of new skilled people into the workforce. We are proud to support this Employer Challenge sprint as part of Engineers Week; encouraging the next generation of engineers to innovate solutions to real-world challenges experienced on major infrastructure projects like HS2.”
