AYCLIFFE TODAY MONTHLY | 17
@AYCLIFFETODAY
BUSINESS BRIEFS
TEKMAR WINS
MAJOR US CONTRACT
SWDT TO ENGINEER
A FUTURE FOR GIRLS
Schoolgirls in Newton Aycliffe will
have the opportunity to gain an insight
into a career in manufacturing and
engineering with the help of a leading
training provider workshop.
South West Durham Training
(SWDT) will take to County Durham
and Darlington to deliver the Girls into
Engineering workshops for schoolgirls
aged 13 to 16 to inspire a career
in the industry and tackle gender
stereotypes.
The training provider, which has
been equipping the region with the
skills needed to lead the way in the
manufacturing
and
engineering
sector for more than 45 years, is also
hoping to encourage schools to add
the subjects to their curriculum after
recent figures showed that just 6%
of the UK engineering workforce is
female.
The one-day workshop will offer an
overview of the manufacturing and
engineering industry, address gender
stereotypes and will include Snacktory
Factory, an interactive activity which
has an element of creativity and
design, which according to studies
evokes better engagement in girls.
In light of National Women in
Engineering Day on Monday, 23rd
June, Kate Chapman, business
development manager at SWDT is
leading the workshop programme and
hopes that schools will sign up to the
workshops before September.
She said: “We’re currently working
on the development of Girls into
Engineering workshops, intended
for delivery into secondary schools
from September 2014. It’s a focused
campaign initiated to respond to this
area of improvement with a targeted
approach and measureable outcome.
“I came through the apprenticeship
route with SWDT myself and have
SWDT Business Development
Manager Kate Chapman.
seen first-hand how great a career in
engineering and manufacturing can
be.
“I’m delighted to play a part in
introducing the next generation to
the industry and hope to see schools
across the board sign up to take part
in the workshops.”
The drive behind the call for women
in engineering comes as Government
announce a national shortage of
engineers required to drive forward
the economic recovery and future
growth within the sectors.
Miss Chapman added: “We have
a noticeable disproportion in maleto-female learners’ at SWDT, which
currently stands at a 14:1 ratio.
“We have recognised this as an area
for improvement, not only to tackle the
gender bias issues in industry, but as
an area for recruitment to address the
engineering skills shortage as a whole.
“With this repeated fact comes
the extreme under-representation
of women in industry and it is within
our own values as a training provider
to ensure that we strive for equality
of opportunity. The Government is
looking at ways of trying to remedy
the problem and at SWDT we’re
embracing that.”
The role of female apprentices will
also be addressed at an upcoming
business conference hosted by SWDT
on Tuesday, 8th July.
The training provider is calling for
employers across the region to pledge
an apprentice in order to work towards
employing more of the UK workforce
through apprenticeship by April 2015.
For more information on the Girls in
Engineering workshop or South West
Durham Training, call Kate Chapman,
business development manager on
01325 328170 or Trevor Alley, chief
executive officer, on 01325 328160.
Aycliffe Business Park firm Tekmar
Energy has marked a major business
milestone after winning a contract on
the first US offshore wind farm, Cape
Wind.
The contract award underlines the
cable protection specialist’s industryleading track record for delivering
custom cable protection solutions to
the offshore industry.
At Cape Wind, Tekmar will design,
manufacture and supply over 200 of
its TekLink cable protection systems
(CPS) for the project’s inter-array and
export cables.
Tekmar will also supply its
polyurethane bellmouth and internal
cable guide cones which are attached
to the foundations and offer additional
support and protection to the power
cables.
OKTOBERFEST 2014
Engineering and manufacturing
companies in the North-East are
being urged to book their place at the
region’s biggest and most high profile
inter-trading and networking event.
After the success of last year’s
Durham Oktoberfest, which was
attended by almost 120 exhibitors
and 1,600 people, details for the 2014
event - on Thursday 23rd October have now been announced, with the
venue once again the Xcel Centre on
Aycliffe Business Park.
More at www.aycliffetoday.co.uk
HITACHI LATEST
Hitachi Rail Europe say local people
can now start to appreciate the size
of their investment in Newton Aycliffe,
with their huge train-building factory
quickly starting to take shape.
At a special steel ceremony on site,
the Japanese firm’s managing director
Keith Jordan told Aycliffe Today he
hopes Newtonians will get “a good
feel” for the £82m facility on Aycliffe
Business Park.
Go to our business section on www.
aycliffetoday.co.uk for the full story.