Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 9
/NEWS
AYCLIFFE’S
THE JEWEL
IN COUNTY’S
CROWN
Dr Simon Goon, the new
managing director of
Business Durham
Dr Simon Goon is only four months into
his new role of managing director of
Business Durham, but he has already
identified Aycliffe Business Park as a
“jewel in the crown”
.
Goon succeeded Stewart Watkins, who retired
in the summer after more than 30 years
with the organisation previously known as
the County Durham Development Company
(CDDC).
As the gateway for business in one of the
country’s biggest counties, Business Durham
has a wide-reaching remit covering a vast area,
but Newton Aycliffe is clearly near the top of the
agenda.
Watkins always had a soft spot for the area and
was credited with playing a major part in helping
to bring Hitachi Rail Europe’s Intercity Express
Programme to the town.
Similarly, Goon has already got his feet under
the table. He helped to attract Compound
Photonics to Aycliffe, saving the former RFMD
plant and 80 full-time jobs, and has been
impressed by the work of the Aycliffe Business
Park steering group.
“Clearly it’s a crown jewel for County Durham,
”
said Dr Goon, who’s originally from the
Midlands but moved to the region 25 years ago
to study chemistry.
“And not just because of Hitachi. Of course, that
is a huge development for the area, but Hitachi
should be proud to be locating in Aycliffe – in
fact, I know they do very much see it that way
– because it’s a fantastic location and there’s
already some phenomenal work going on.
“There’s such a diverse set of operations – big
companies and small companies – and that’s
one of the best things about the business
community that’s going on. It’s facilitating that
networking of people who might never get to
meet some of their neighbours otherwise.
“There’s a lot going on already. There’s a real
buzz around it. People are confident, SMEs
are popping up all over the place, big firms are
taking on more staff.
“But we need to ask, what’s the next
development step for Aycliffe Business Park?”
Some say Aycliffe has the potential to be as big,
if not bigger, than Team Valley in Gateshead, and
Goon agrees.
He said: “We think Aycliffe Business Park is
actually not that far behind Team Valley already,
in terms of employment engineering and
manufacturing. Aycliffe also has a larger land
mass than Team Valley, so although it’s
all potential, there’s no reason Aycliffe can’t
go for it.
”
More on this story, including more about
Dr Goon’s background, is in the business
section of www.aycliffetoday.co.uk
“Under representation of females in STEM
subjects is not unique to SWDT. It’s a national
problem. The UK has the lowest number of
female engineers in the whole of Europe.
“The Government is looking at ways of trying to
remedy the problem and we’re embracing that.
”
EngineeringUK carried out a recent review
of the data relating to women in engineering
and technology and identified UKRC research
that showed that only 9% of UK engineering
professionals are women compared to 18% in
Spain, 26% in Sweden and 20% in Italy.
A Commons Select Committee has also
recently held an inquiry to review evidence
submitted to address the issues.
SWDT AIM TO
TACKLE FEMALE
APPRENTICESHIP
PROBLEM
One of the region’s best-known trainingproviders is making a conscious effort to get
more girls into Apprenticeships after alarming
government figures reveal the UK is trailing
several European countries when it comes to
recruiting females.
Kate Chapman has just been appointed the new
business development manager for Aycliffebased SW Durham Training (SWDT).
The 33-year-old began her career as an
Apprentice in fabrication and welding with
SWDT – formerly known as South West Durham
Training – after persuading her parents to let
her dump A-levels in favour of earning while
learning.
She still ended up gaining a University
qualification via the Apprenticeship route and
went on to forge a hugely-successful career
for herself – holding leading positions for
engineering firms in Holland and Sweden – she
turned full circle when she returned to SWDT in
October 2012, initially as business development
co-ordinator.
Now Kate is hoping SWDT can turn the tide for
the region by encouraging more girls to follow in
her footsteps.
“I believe passionately about Apprenticeships
for girls and boys as a fantastic career path,
”
says Kate.
Kate added: “We have a noticeable
disproportion in male to female learners’ at
SWDT which currently stands at a 4:1 ratio.
“We have recognised this as an area for
improvement, not only to tackle the gender
bias issues, but as an area for recruitment to
address the engineering skills shortage as a
whole.
“We have some clear targets and actions that
we will be conducting, including a review of
all promotion materials to show images of all
learner groups via website, course brochures,
programme leaflets and posters.
“We also plan to proactively organise
promotional events to help promote awareness
in the local area, and we’ll look to local industry
and education for support in this.
”