Derbyshire engineering company opens shop floor to more than 100 pupils for National Manufacturing Day

More than 100 pupils from schools across Derbyshire found out if they could be tomorrow’s engineers as an award-winning business opened up for the fifth annual National Manufacturing Day. Acres Engineering in Melbourne welcomed pupils from seven schools in Derby and wider Derbyshire to find out all about the life of an engineer.

Pupils were given a full tour of Acres, starting with the design of a product and going through every process including tube and sheet metal laser cutting, powder coat painting, fabrication, destructive load testing and assembly.

Young visitors put their new found engineering skills to the test with timed competitions on trestle table building, before visiting British Army and Toyota Manufacturing UK stands which were running STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) activities on the day.

National Manufacturing Day is an annual event organised by Make UK with the aim of inviting in the public, schools and colleges to the country’s manufacturing companies to take a look at modern processes and find out what careers are available in the sector.

Chris Corkan, Regional Director for Make UK, paid a visit to Acres Engineering on the day: “The Acres event today is absolutely what National Manufacturing Day is about: inspiring the next generation of engineers, and giving them a behind the scenes look at a real world factory, but not only that, collaborating with their partners both in the Armed Forces and Toyota Manufacturing to demonstrate the diversity of opportunity for a career in STEM. Having supported this campaign for five years, Acres is an exemplar of this initiative.”

Many of Acres’ young apprentices and members of staff were on hand to answer questions from school children.

Acres welcomed through its doors busloads of children from Weston-on-Trent CE Primary School, UTC Derby Pride Park, Murray Park Community School, Derby Grammar School, St Wystan’s School, Chellaston Academy and Granville Academy in Swadlincote.

Wendy Allen, Subject Lead for Design & Technology at Chellaston Academy, said pupils always enjoyed going to Acres for National Manufacturing Day. A group of year 10 students from Chellaston attended on the day, all studying the Cambridge National Level 2 Engineering and Manufacturing Course.

“We come every year and it’s very inspirational, and there are great hands-on experiences for them as well,” stated Wendy. “It gives them the experience of seeing lots of the processes we have to cover on the course – and all the staff at Acres are great.”

Chris Lambeth, Careers Lead at Granville Academy, added: “It’s been really good. The students have been very engaged. They’ve enjoyed looking round and doing some hands-on engineering activities as well. It’s been very good for them because they’ve just started their GCSE course in engineering, so it’s a really nice experience so early on in their GCSE.”

Tim Taylor, Aspirations, Careers and Employability Co-ordinator at Murray Park Community School in Derby, commented: “It’s been an absolutely engaging experience for our students. We brought along 13 year 11 design and technology students. Students have gained a lot of STEM knowledge from this experience and hopefully they’ll be inspired to go on and consider engineering sectors for post 16 when they leave in June next year.”

Luke Parker, Managing Director of Acres Engineering, remarked: “This has been the fifth National Manufacturing Day event we’ve organised at Acres and it’s been our best yet. We’re passionate about inspiring the engineers of tomorrow and it’s been brilliant to see so many young people asking questions and engaging with the activities we have had here today. My thanks to the wider Acres Engineering team who organised a very successful day.”

Earlier this year Acres Engineering was crowned with a King’s Award for Enterprise for Promoting Social Mobility, in recognition of its commitment to supporting people in engineering careers through apprenticeships, work placements and factory open days.

Last year the company won a national Make UK award in the Manufacturing Impact category.