Rory launches local schools’ ‘We Made It’ manufacturing competition
Rory has joined UK manufacturers to encourage kids to get excited about manufacturing careers. Proud to have launched the We Made It! competition in Penrith and the Border, working closely with local schools and industries to help young people understand how exciting and rewarding a career in manufacturing can be, he has written to all his constituency schools and asked them to consider competing.
The competition invites young people aged 13-16 to submit designs and ideas for a gadget, gizmo, toy or tool they’d like to see made. Any invention, no matter how creative, is welcome. As long as it’s realistic enough to be made, there’s a chance it could be.
Rory said “In a constituency that has a strong tradition of enterprise, I’m very proud to be supporting this great project to help young people turn their innovative ideas into reality. Britain desperately needs more young people aspiring to high-level manufacturing jobs and gaining a better understanding of how the industry and businesses involved in it actually work. I really look forward to seeing what our local schoolchildren can come up with, and it will be a great honour if our young inventors and entrepreneurs will be able to represent Penrith and the Border in Westminster on a national level.”
Rory will help judge the entries, and the winner will be entered into a nation-wide competition judged by a group of organisations involved in manufacturing, including Boeing, The Manufacturing Institute, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Finmeccanica, Renewable UK, the Confederation of Paper Industries and Lloyds Banking Group. The organisations are all partners in the Dods Manufacturing Dialogue, which is working to increase interest in manufacturing skills in schools.
The best entries nationwide will be invited to a ‘Fab Lab’: the outstanding facilities provided by MIT and the Manufacturing Institute, where their designs will be manufactured and brought to life. Later this autumn, Rory will bring the winner of our local competition to a reception and awards ceremony in Parliament and they’ll have the opportunity to meet the heads of the manufacturing organisations involved in the project and learn how to take their career in manufacturing further.
To find out more and to enter the competition, pupils can visit the competition’s website,www.wemadeituk.co.uk
NOTES
The Dods UK Manufacturing Dialogue is a project run by Dods and with partners:
Boeing, The Manufacturing Institute, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Finmeccanica, the Confederation of Paper Industries, Renewable UK and Lloyds Banking Group. For more information about the dialogue see www.epolitix.com/members/member-page/sites/manufacturing-dialogue/
For more information about the initiative, call Ella Uziell-Hamilton, Communications Manager at Dods, on 020 8433 6796 or email [email protected]
