Empowering Tomorrow: Student STEM initiatives

Our apprenticeship schemes, for example, are a testament to this as they have provided many students with the chance to develop their practical and professional skills, enabling them to later go on to build successful careers at Dennis Eagle.

In recent years, we have been actively involved in The Engineering Development Trust’s Industrial Cadets programme and advocating ourselves as STEM Ambassadors for young students, specifically in lower sixth form, who have a keen interest in engineering and manufacturing. It has created an opportunity for us to not only give the students practical experience in the work environment, but also teach them the essential soft skills required.

This year, the students from Bablake School and Solihull School worked with Dennis Eagle mentors, Max Lobo (Engineering), Dale Frost (Production Engineering), and Andy McKinlay (Operations) for the Industrial Cadets Gold Project, which involved two separate teams working on prototypes over a period of six months that could be potentially developed for industrial use.

The students of Solihull School developed a prototype lifting aid, to streamline the installation of the Olympus body hydraulic valve block and improve operator safety.

While, Bablake students researched and proposed a trolley with an adjustable tailgate system, to combine the three separate trolleys currently used within production. The proposed trolley would reduce time and cost throughout the assembly process.

At the end of the project, the students submitted their final report and presented their work to the official assessors. The final result were then announced in June at the Celebration Event at The University of Birmingham, both teams had been nominated for the Project of The Year Award, with Bablake School taking home the trophy.