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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

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