Car maker Nissan plans to work with thousands more school children in the North East to inspire them about careers in manufacturing, engineering and technology.
On the 10th anniversary of the manufacturer's Skills Foundation - which was launched by King Charles, then Prince of Wales in 2015 - it has announced plans to double its STEM work to reach about 16,000 children each year. The Nissan Skills Foundation started with a single workshop for about 1,000 students and in the period since has expanded to 13 different STEM courses for students aged six to 18.
To mark the milestone and its expansion, 200 children from schools across the North East were invited to the company's Sunderland factory where they were put to work on a production line - building 300 Nissan Qashqai models made out of Lego bricks. Just like the plant's real production lines only metres away, the Qashqais were assembled in sequence, with a total of 61,200 Lego bricks fitted during the hour-long event - a rate of about 1,000 bricks per minute.
Growth of the Skills Foundation work also comes with expansion of The Skills Academy for Sustainable Manufacturing and Innovation (SASMI) training centre next to the Sunderland plant - which will get a second classroom. The facility was launched by the £14.6m Manufacturing, Automation, Digitalisation, Electrification North East (MADE NE) initiative, of which Nissan is a co-creator.
Adam Pennick, vice president, manufacturing at Nissan Sunderland, highlighted the EV36Zero plans centred around the plant and its bringing together of new electric models, nearby battery manufacturing capabilities and renewable energy sources powering the operation. He added: "This is about the talent and skills of the future and we're showing that we've got that coming. We've got the cars that we're going to be building in the years to come. This is about nurturing that generation."
Asked about whether the company's global challenges - which have included falling sales, financial worries and a change of leadership following failed merger talks with Honda - have impacted the attractiveness of future careers at the plant, Mr Pennick said that challenge was not unique to Nissan.
He said: "Challenge isn't new to us. We've been here for more than 40 years. That's what the success of this plant is built upon. This type of activity is opening people's eyes up - to get children to understand the opportunities that come through STEM and the excitement that comes with it. They are seeing it through learning. Some of the skills they're learning today - including optimising the process and teamwork - they are the building blocks of what we need here in the plant."
Michael Jude, HR director at Nissan Sunderland said: “To have inspired more than 100,000 young minds over 10 years is a phenomenal achievement. We could not be prouder of our training team who help unearth the exciting talent of the future. But it’s not just about the numbers. We have dozens of current staff who attended a Skills Foundation event while at school, proof that the foundation’s work today really does produce the talent of tomorrow."
Among the seven schools attending the lego production event was a year six class from Gillas Lane School in Houghton-le-Spring. Headteacher Kay Straughan said: “Over the last 10 years we’ve seen many of our school children attend various courses at the Nissan Skills Foundation.
“We believe that by introducing children to the exciting opportunities available in STEM-based careers at a young age, we’re providing them with the knowledge to inform their future career choices as they go through their educational journey. It’s also a brilliant opportunity for our students to gain hands-on and applied learning experiences outside of our school environment.”
Courses delivered by the Nissan Skills Foundation include Monozukuri Caravan, which teaches about the fundamentals of lean manufacturing; VEX IQ Robotics, which applies robot programming skills to challenges within a national competition; Robotics Coding Club, which uses gamification to introduce coding skills, and Lesson in Box, where a ready-to-teach STEM module is taken to the school.
As part of its skills drive, Nissan also hopes to have 35% of its executive roles occupied by women by 2030. Friederike Kienitz, Nissan's senior vice president for corporate affairs and governance, said the industry is still very male dominated and that she often finds herself as the only woman in the room - but talked of the role diversity in the workforce can play in bringing about greater innovation and creativity.
