PPMA-Group-News-Autumn-2018
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Glowing<br />
end of term<br />
report - but<br />
still work<br />
to be done<br />
<strong>PPMA</strong> BEST<br />
By Danny Reed – Education & Skills<br />
Manager, <strong>PPMA</strong> BEST<br />
Unlike the rest of the <strong>PPMA</strong><br />
<strong>Group</strong>, our activities at BEST<br />
operate on an academic<br />
calendar. We have just<br />
reached the end of our year,<br />
which gives us the ideal opportunity to<br />
reflect on what we’ve achieved over the<br />
past 12 months and set out our aims for<br />
the future.<br />
Award-winning support<br />
From September 2017 to August <strong>2018</strong>, we<br />
worked with over 900 students as part<br />
of the <strong>PPMA</strong> BEST initiative. This included<br />
in-school STEM days, our work experience<br />
programme and our specialist projects.<br />
I’m particularly proud of the work we<br />
did to support a team of students from<br />
The Portsmouth Academy; a secondary<br />
school in a challenging area, facing<br />
problems with social deprivation and an<br />
above average number of ‘NEETS’ (young<br />
people not in education, employment or<br />
training). We assisted the students – a<br />
group of seven girls aged 14-15 – with an<br />
eco-factory project, which subsequently<br />
won the People’s Choice category at the<br />
Dorset and Hampshire Go4SET Awards,<br />
held at the National Oceanography Centre.<br />
An incredible achievement!<br />
Inspiring all ages<br />
In November 2017, we held an incredibly<br />
successful STEM event at the Manchester<br />
Museum of Science and Industry. Aimed<br />
at students aged 15-16 who were already<br />
showing an interest in and aptitude for<br />
STEM, the event highlighted the exciting<br />
opportunities for further study and<br />
the career paths available within the<br />
processing, packaging and associated<br />
industries.<br />
We also ran a number of inclusive<br />
STEM days in secondary schools,<br />
designed to engage everyone to the<br />
possibilities STEM can offer, and piloted<br />
a STEM day in a primary school that<br />
reached out to 156 students between<br />
the ages of 5-11. We hope to roll out<br />
more of these in the future, working<br />
with <strong>PPMA</strong> member companies to<br />
inspire a love of science and engineering<br />
in young people of all ages and abilities.<br />
Companies at the front line<br />
We have supported 11 <strong>PPMA</strong> member<br />
companies in total over the past 12<br />
months. Clearview Imaging, Evolution<br />
Bottling Solutions, Fanuc, Jenton<br />
International, KUKA, Lenze, Packaging<br />
Automation and Scorpion Vision received<br />
support from <strong>PPMA</strong> BEST at outreach<br />
events, while Evolution Bottling Solutions,<br />
Excel Packaging Machinery, Multipix<br />
Imaging, Scorpion Vision and Simmatic<br />
benefited from <strong>PPMA</strong> BEST grants.<br />
The BEST ever <strong>PPMA</strong> Show<br />
Our new academic year begins in earnest<br />
with the <strong>PPMA</strong> Show (25-27 September<br />
at the NEC in Birmingham), and I am<br />
delighted that this year’s event not only<br />
features the <strong>PPMA</strong> BEST MTA Educational<br />
Stand, but also incorporates the <strong>PPMA</strong><br />
BEST Day (Thursday 27 September).<br />
This will see 60 sixth-form students from<br />
Hertfordshire tour the exhibition to meet<br />
those working in the industry, get up close<br />
and personal with the latest machinery,<br />
and take part in on-stand coding activities.<br />
The seminar programme for that day<br />
will also be given over to BEST, featuring<br />
a number of presentations by industry<br />
leaders such as Mondelez and Lenze, who<br />
will aim to inspire the next generation of<br />
engineers.<br />
Building for the future<br />
Following on from the show, we plan to<br />
continue with the programme of in-school<br />
STEM days; carry out more project work,<br />
supporting a school in Scotland as well as<br />
furthering our work with The Portsmouth<br />
Academy; and repeat our specialist STEM<br />
day at the Manchester Museum of Science<br />
and Industry, in conjunction with the MTA<br />
(12 November <strong>2018</strong>).<br />
We will also be running a series<br />
of mentor training courses for <strong>PPMA</strong><br />
members who want to get involved with<br />
the BEST programme, to ensure their staff<br />
have the necessary skills to communicate<br />
effectively with and inspire the young<br />
people we need to keep our industry<br />
thriving.<br />
To find out more about the work of<br />
<strong>PPMA</strong> BEST and how your company can<br />
get involved, contact<br />
danny.reed@ppma.co.uk<br />
www.ppmabest.org.uk<br />
<strong>PPMA</strong> BEST is the charitable arm of the <strong>PPMA</strong>.<br />
It supports young people looking to explore and enter<br />
a career in the processing, packaging, machine vision,<br />
robotics and automation industries; providing a range<br />
of activities to engage and inspire them.<br />
14 www.ppma.co.uk