As part of National Manufacturing Day, Year 11 Design Technology pupils had the opportunity to visit Numatic International, maker of the renowned Henry, to see behind the scenes of this key local employer. Pupils had a tour, a workshop, and a talk by Numatics’ Head of Operations highlighting the key role of manufacturing in the UK and global economy – it currently accounts for over half of the UK’s exports. Pupils learnt that Numatic export to 86 countries world wide and at their 43 acre Chard site make over 27,000 Henrys a week, alone.
In a workshop activity teams were set the challenge of assembling a Henry, with one team proving particularly competitive – successfully assembling their Henry in under 3 minutes, at the first attempt! As part of this workshop pupil’s also calculated their production costs, evaluating labour costs, time incurred and profit. Numatics staff spoke about their job titles, their training route and the opportunities within British Manufacturing for a wage at least 12% higher than the wider economy.
A tour of the factory floor allowed pupils to see the assembly line process and understand how the use of ‘Cobots’ has enabled robots and employees to work together to make the production line more efficient, without the loss of the human workforce.
This was a fantastic insight into the world of work and exposed pupils to an array of jobs that they may not have previously considered relating to their Design Technology GCSE. Encounters with employers such as these are a key part of careers within the curriculum – showcasing opportunities and inspiring the future workforce.
