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Teenagers from across Merseyside gained an insight into the high-tech world of life-saving survival equipment when took part in the Survitec Group Make it Enterprising Schools Challenge at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Liverpool yesterday.
The ninety 13 and 14 year-old boys and girls established their own mini-manufacturing businesses and created new survival products for use on land, sea or air ranging from inflatable tents for disaster zones to immersion suits for oil-rig workers. Throughout the course of the day each team completed a series of key tasks as set by the Survitec Group, a global manufacturing business with locations across the world including the RFD Beaufort site in Birkenhead.
The team from St Edward’s College in West Derby took the winning title with their survival pod that could be used to assist flood victims or as a safety device on cruise liners. The team impressed the Survitec ‘Dragons’ with their ideas for parachuting the pods into affected areas and a strong marketing campaign.
Runner’s up were Wirral Grammar School for Boys whose ‘Inflatapod’ could be used in any disaster situation and was able to house 40 days worth of supplies including first aid, food and drink and water purification tablets. The team put together a confident pitch and the dragons were impressed with the team’s projected 43% profit margin.
In addition four pupils were designated as ‘Outstanding Individuals’ for leadership, innovation and creativity, these were ; Lorcan Wardle from St Edward’s College, Amy France from Archbishop Blanch School, Lauren Bailey from Prenton High School for Girls and Ed Rice from Neston High School.
The free event was part of The Manufacturing Institute’s Make It in Manufacturing campaign (www.makeit.org.uk) to attract talented young people into industry, an initiative that has being expanded thanks to support from the Northwest Regional Development Agency and European Regional Development Fund.
Survitec’s own senior managers were on hand throughout the day to help the teams to set up their own manufacturing enterprises and take on job roles from managing director to operations managers – through to finance, sales and marketing managers.
Make It campaign manager at The Manufacturing Institute, Nicola Eagleton-Crowther, said: “The teenagers learnt first hand about the challenges of working for an international manufacturing business like Survitec. Modern manufacturing is an exciting global enterprise reliant upon innovation, creativity and ingenuity and the young people clearly exhibited these qualities throughout the course of the day.”
Brian Stringer, Chief Operating Officer for the Survitec Group, added: “We were delighted to support the Make It Challenge as we recognise how vital it is to overturn outdated and old-fashioned perceptions of manufacturing and encourage more young people to consider careers in the sector. The youngsters that took part had precisely the types of skills that world-class businesses such as ours rely on – drive, enthusiasm, excellent attention to detail and great team working and it was a pleasure to meet them on the day.”