Engineering news
The Prince of Wales has launched a drive to get more young people into manufacturing and engineering industries.
Prince Charles unveiled a £2.4 million boost for Business Class, a scheme that helps successful firms to work with schools in deprived areas, and a roll-out of Industrial Cadets, which helps young people get involved in manufacturing and engineering.
Speaking following a visit to the Jaguar Land Rover production plant in Halewood, Merseyside, the Prince warned that Britain is in danger of relinquishing its world-class reputation if more young people are not attracted into the industries.
Prince Charles said: “Too often it seems forgotten in this country that Britain is very good at manufacturing and has all sorts of remarkable skills of ingenuity, inventiveness and how to put brilliant ideas into production.”
He added: “As a country, we are rightly proud of our industrial heritage and we should also celebrate our continued success as a standard-bearer for quality manufacturing and engineering throughout the world.”
Prince Charles highlighted car production, quality shirt making, precision engineering and craftsmanship, adding: “Britain is a truly global leader and, of course, we have to be careful to invest in that manufacturing and creativity by ensuring the sector has access to enough talented young people with the necessary skills to help these companies grow.”
The Prince is carrying out a series of visits over two days to champion the Best of British engineering and manufacturing.
Business Class, run by the Prince's Business in the Community charity, helps firms to form long-term partnerships with schools in deprived communities that could benefit from their help and expertise.
The new funding should allow the charity to meet its target to build 500 partnerships by 2015 and help more than 75,000 young people.
While at Jaguar Land Rover, Prince Charles saw how the company is working in partnership with Knowsley School as part of the Business Class programme.
Prince Charles, joined by Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, also launched Industrial Cadets, a national initiative backed by Pickles' department to encourage young people to join manufacturing industries.
The idea stemmed from discussions between the Prince and Tata Steel in 2010, and the scheme is being run by the education charity EDT.
Industrial Cadets aims to raise the aspirations of students aged 12 to 14 by building awareness of the manufacturing industry in their local areas.