Paul Stinchon has developed a programme for young people to visit the Rolls-Royce facility at Barnoldswick to learn about the technology and engineering. Paul has a team of about 15 people to help plan the activities. They visit schools to tell them about engineering, Rolls-Royce, technical careers, and subsequently invite them school to visit the factory. He has developed Site Visiting Pack including presentations, videos, information sheets and risk assessments, for different ages of school children.
Paul is a Manufacturing Systems Engineer at Rolls-Royce Barnoldswick. He works in the Compressor Components team where his responsibilities include leading manufacturing systems projects, deploying Manufacturing Execution System, Computer Aided Manufacturing and Process Planning Systems. Paul followed the apprenticeship route to become an electronics technician and then moved into manufacturing systems.
The first site visit was arranged for a school where Paul was a governor and had been running a STEM club, which Rolls-Royce had helped to fund through its School Governor funding. A teacher suggested that the children would like to visit Rolls-Royce. Paul describes his reaction: “I could think of lots of hurdles and challenges, and why it would be difficult. But I like a challenge and there was no good reason why not!” The first visit was a resounding success: “The children were blown away. The impact on the school and the facility was excellent.”
Paul built up a team of apprentices, many of whom are now fully qualified, who became the team of volunteers to host visitors. They developed their pack of information to make sure that the school children got the maximum from their visit. They manage to fit in eight visits a year, and about 500 local children have benefited over the last two years, while still fulfilling their role in a busy workplace.
Rolls-Royce have a Global Code of Conduct which states their commitment to the local community and STEM, and have been supportive of the work. Building relationships with the local schools has had a positive impact on the local community but also on the internal community. The engineers have a renewed pride in what they are doing, as they demonstrate the world class processes that are happening in the facility at Barnoldswick. “By showcasing what we do every day, we can have a positive impact on young people.”
Paul was nominated for this award by one of his team of volunteers, an apprentice at Barnoldswick. It is a mark of the commitment of all involved that they give up their free time to make it a success and are proud to be part of it.
Paul was thrilled to win this award and hopes that the extra momentum will allow him to expand the initiative further. He hopes to be able to establish more STEM clubs, introducing some interactive modelling activities to the site visits and adapt a Rolls-Royce app to explain how jet engines work.
Find out more about the Alastair Graham Bryce Award