Quanex company Schlegel was featured on BBC’s Look North for its continued support for UTC South Durham’s Industry Projects programme.
The initiative, run by the technical college and sixth form in Newton Aycliffe, gives Stem students the opportunity to work on real challenges set by regional employers while helping them develop the practical and transferable skills employers need.
This year, Schlegel provided a live project brief for a team of students based on a real manufacturing issue from within its operations. The team spent 12 weeks researching the issue, developing a proposed solution and presenting their findings at the programme’s finale event.
For students Mathew Causer and Liam Pattison, the programme gave them a focus for their future careers.
Mathew said: “This has been really beneficial as I’ve learned that I enjoy the hands-on work experience and now understand this is what I want to do in my engineering apprenticeship.”
Liam said: “I have enjoyed this introduction to engineering at Quanex and doing design and prototyping work, and this is where I would like to focus my career.”
For Schlegel, the benefits of the programme are already proven. Previous students developed a solution aimed at reducing downtime at the company’s Newton Aycliffe manufacturing facility. The proposal was subsequently implemented and is now being explored for patent protection and wider rollout.