AME is a joint collaboration between Coventry University and Unipart Manufacturing that was set up three years ago to develop ‘industry-ready’ engineers.
Seven graduates picked up their BEng degrees, including Alicia Prior, Daniel Davey, Daryl Eastgate, Daryl Obe, David Mordi, Joe Howe and Nick Hugill.
They have all secured employment, with five of them directly involved in industry for firms in the automotive, motorsport and metals sector. Other students on the first cohort are continuing on to complete their Masters.
Carl Perrin, director of AME said: “This is a fantastic milestone for us and highlights how a new approach to developing future manufacturing talent can work.
“We set out the vision in 2014 to create the UK’s first ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’, an ambitious vision that linked up industry and academia and changed the focus of learning to real life experience of shopfloor projects and giving them access to the latest technology.
“It’s an approach that has worked as we have produced much more rounded engineers that are comfortable operating in a high pressured working environment and understand the dynamics of being part of a team.”
The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering is located on the Unipart Manufacturing site in Coventry and is housed in a 1700 sq metre purpose-built hub.
“I’m delighted for our first cohort, especially with the fact that five of them have gone into industry-related positions,” added Perrin. “Three of them have started work at Unipart Powertrain Applications (UPA), one is working with SAPA Hydro and another is starting his career in the motorsport arena.”
Alicia Prior has celebrated achieving her degree by securing a position at Unipart Powertrain Applications in Coventry. Prior’s time at AME included a two-month placement with a major US manufacturer in Indiana.
“It has been a fantastic experience, especially spending so much of it working on real-time manufacturing projects…it reinforced the theory and allowed me to quickly apply it to situations I will find myself in the future,” she said. “I’m now part of a small team at UPA, supporting an advanced manufacturing engineer in their work. This is just the start; the longer-term aim is to become a project manager in industry.”
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