4th May 2023
Greater Birmingham & Solihull Institute of Technology (GBSIoT) has launched their much-anticipated online and interactive platform, created to engage young people and showcase the possibilities and pathways behind an exciting career in engineering and manufacturing.
The GBSIoT Hub lets students build their own pathway, with video content from apprentice engineers working across industry sectors, all with their own inspiring stories to tell. One of those inspiring stories comes from our very own Apprentice Electrical Engineer, Sophie Young.
Sophie’s video has helped to launch the platform during its opening week and provides an insight into Sophie’s long-standing interest and enthusiasm for engineering and STEM subjects, and how she came to a decision on venturing into an apprenticeship with PP Control & Automation.
Sophie details the learning experience and hands-on approach during her first six months and how her knowledge can now be turned into something practical and tangible. Sophie now works in the engineering office, developing deigns and providing the shop floor with the information required for production readiness.
Sophie talks of her love for the job, how the industry is where she sees her future, and how she is determined to champion the role of women in engineering.
Watch Sophie’s video in full below and interact with GBSIoT’s new online hub here.
Malcolm Condon believes a collective push needs to be made to change perceptions of industry and influence at grassroots level to attract the next generation of talent.
Encouraging young people into engineering is not only critical as the skills gap grows, but it’s essential for future-proofing the UK as an innovative nation, capable of helping to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.
Attracting more females into engineering is the mission for a Black Country electrical engineer that has won a clutch of awards in the early part of her career.
The Manufacturer Top 100 celebrated the exceptional achievements and contributions of individuals within the manufacturing industry and among the 100 remarkable talents was our very own Sophie Young.
PP C&A is pleased to share that CEO, Tony Hague, and apprentice, Sophie Young, have been shortlisted for prestigious accolades at the Engineering & Manufacturing Awards.
Greater Birmingham & Solihull Institute of Technology (GBSIoT) has launched their much-anticipated online and interactive platform, created to engage young people and showcase the possibilities and pathways behind an exciting career in engineering and manufacturing.
A female electrical engineer, who has already delivered a £1m plus new product introduction, was named as the Black Country’s best Engineering & Manufacturing apprentice on the evening of Thursday 3rd November.
From where to invest large sums of money, to which market sectors to target, young engineers face the ‘difficult’ work life questions.
Three schools from the Black Country and Warwickshire have been crowned as the main winners at one of the biggest independent manufacturing-education events in the UK.
PP C&A has signalled its intentions to ramp up investment in its recently launched Bright Sparks University (BSU).
IoTs are top-quality training institutes for STEM subjects, located across England in partnerships between colleges, universities, and leading employers.
Backed by a £290 million government investment, they offer the best in technical education. The GBSIoT is a partnership of leading further education colleges, universities, and employers for the Greater Birmingham region, specialising in advanced manufacturing and engineering. Whether you’re a student, career changer, or employer seeking advice, GBSIoT aims to help you find the right opportunity.
The GBSIoT Hub, located on Holt Street is a state-of-the-art facility in the centre of Birmingham that houses the largest Cyber Physical Manufacturing Rigs in Europe. Open to use for education, CPD, event and meeting bookings right in the heart of Birmingham. The Hub is also the environment by which the new online platform has based its interactive tour.
Ian Knight, Chief Information Officer at PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) challenges the prevailing, often vague narrative around AI adoption and reframes the conversation around a more practical starting point: operational constraints.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept for manufacturers. It is already being explored across quotation, production planning, engineering, quality, supply chain and customer service functions. Yet, for many organisations, the gap between experimentation and meaningful operational impact remains difficult to close.
A leading aquaculture specialist – that is changing the way fish are vaccinated safely – has signed a major manufacturing deal.
On paper, defined discipline-specific suppliers can look organised. However, every additional supplier introduces another handoff, and every handoff creates another point where time, quality, communication and accountability can be lost.
Very rarely does growth not surface because an OEM lacks ambition. Shortcomings arise because operating models built to support such ambition don’t evolve quickly enough.
Recent weeks have brought two important industry moments into sharp focus, concluding that demand for AI and automation is rising, but investment, skills, and long-term thinking must follow.
For decades, one question has sat at the heart of operational strategy for machine builders and OEMs: make or buy? It’s a familiar debate and it isn’t the wrong question by any means, but perhaps it is an incomplete one.
In most machine building businesses, change is still treated as an exception. A late-stage drawing revision, component substitution, or wiring tweak discovered during build. Each one is handled, resolved, and signed off. And then everyone moves on. But what if that’s the wrong way to think about it? What if change isn’t the disruption to the system but the system itself?
