An impact report has revealed that nearly 200 students from North East Derbyshire’s schools got a hands-on taste of manufacturing and engineering careers during the Made in Chesterfield festival in November last year.
Businesses, teachers and pupils have all praised the Made in Chesterfield initiative.
Nick McGowan, assistant headteacher a teacher at Whittington Green School which visited Woodhead Construction’s enterprise centre site, said: “We’ve been teaching construction in the school for the last 15 years and one thing we have always struggled with is access to site so the visit was absolutely brilliant. The visit opened the student’s horizons to the jobs and opportunities within the construction sector.”
In a review of the month-long annual festival undertaken by Direct Education Business Partnership (DEBP) which coordinated Made in Chesterfield in conjunction with Destination Chesterfield, it also found that there was no demand for virtual school visits, indicating that schools are keen to re-engage face-to-face with the business community despite the pandemic.
Ivan Fomin, Managing Director of MSE Hiller and Destination Chesterfield’s board member responsible for manufacturing and engineering in the borough, said: “The uptake of the physical workplace tours by schools for Made in Chesterfield was very encouraging given the current climate of uncertainty. There is a very real appetite amongst schools to give young people the widest exposure to careers and job opportunities.”
He added: “It is so important that we highlight the local career and job opportunities to young people as they are an intrinsic part of Chesterfield’s growth ambitions.”
Virtual workplace tours were launched last year amidst the pandemic, however with Covid restrictions eased physical workplace tours were reintroduced for 2021.
Ben Jones, Project Manager at Weightron Bilanciai which hosted students from Bolsover School added: “Hopefully we have inspired young people to be interested in what they want to do as a career so they can start thinking ahead now to what they should be studying and also whether they want to go to university or follow the apprenticeship route.”
Launched originally in 2013, the annual Made in Chesterfield campaign, has since introduced thousands of young people across North East Derbyshire to the possibility of a career in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) sector.
The hands-on campaign aims to bridge the careers information gap between education and industry by giving schools and pupils access to workplace tours, a range of careers videos and the MyFuture virtual careers fair.
Made in Chesterfield 2021 was made possible thanks to funding and support from The Chesterfield College Group, Chesterfield Borough Council, D2N2 LEP and Careers and Enterprise Company, North Derbyshire Career Hub, MSE Hiller, United Cast Bar Ltd and NatWest.
