Next Gen Makers have become the latest sponsor of Leeds Manufacturing Festival.
Run by the Leeds Manufacturing Alliance, supported by sponsors, this festival aims to bring greater awareness to the depth of career opportunities within manufacturing that exist across the Leeds region.
Leeds Manufacturing Festival offers a series of local events opening the doors of manufacturers to young people, schools and local communities.
Following a launch event on 22nd February, events within the Festival will include a Manufacturing Careers Showcase, Manufacturing ‘Treks’ (factory visits), the ‘Next Gen’ Awards ceremony, Leeds Manufacturing Live Careers Panel in addition to sector experience and employability days.
Next Gen Makers join E3 Recruitment and Leeds City College as sponsors of Leeds Manufacturing Festival for 2023, joining as an Associate Sponsor.
With 1,645 manufacturing firms in Leeds, the city is the 3rd largest manufacturing centre in the country by local authority area, with 29,000 people directly employed in this sector.
A big focus of the Leeds Manufacturing Festival is to promote the exciting opportunities that exist for young people within local manufacturing firms, including apprenticeships.
Adam Tipper, Managing Director of Next Gen Makers comments: “Next Gen Makers is proud to support the Leeds Manufacturing Festival and its efforts to inspire the next generation towards careers in engineering and manufacturing in Leeds.
“Engineering and manufacturing are vital to the UK economy, society and creating the technologies that we all rely upon, so it is essential that we raise awareness of the fantastic careers available within the sector whilst creating a platform for employers to showcase their opportunities.
“We look forward to supporting the event, working closely with the Leeds Manufacturing Alliance and enable more companies within the Leeds manufacturing community to stand out as employers of choice for engineering apprenticeships”.
Next Gen Makers helps UK manufacturing and engineering firms to run winning apprenticeship schemes via benchmarking, sharing best practice sharing and Kitemark accreditation as part of its’ Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme and community of manufacturers.
Through their Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme and employer Kitemark initiative, their goal is to enable engineering and manufacturing firms of all sizes to deliver the best possible experience for apprentices and become great at attracting and retaining skilled apprentice talent.
In collaboration with strategic partner Make UK, Next Gen Makers’ ‘Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Kitemark’ recognises exemplar employers of engineering apprentices; helping young people to make more informed choices on where they pursue their apprenticeship, whilst enabling excellent employers to get recognised and stand out in the competitive world of attracting young talent.