Member Article

TyneMet Engineering Students Shadow Technicians at Nestlé UK

TyneMet Engineering Students Shadow Technicians at Nestlé UK

Six Engineering students studying from TyneMet College had the privilege of spending a day at the Nestlé UK factory in Fawdon, each shadowing a highly skilled and qualified technician.

The visit was arranged by TyneMet College and Nestlé UK so that the students could gain ‘first-hand’ experience of real-life working on a factory floor.

The Nestlé UK factory at Fawdon has over 600 employees including 64 maintenance technicians. These technicians are responsible for the maintenance and upgrading of all of the mechanical and electrical machines that produce some of the nation’s favourite confectionary brands such as Rolo, Munchies, Toffee Crisp, Breakaway, Blue Riband, Matchmakers, Fruit Pastilles and Jelly Tots.

The students could not have wished for a better example of large scale mechanical and electrical engineering machinery, all of which is maintained and operated by a competent and dedicated workforce.

The six students; Poppy Baxter, 17, from Walkergate, Rachel Waterworth, 17, from North Shields and Myles Forman, 17, from North Shields who are studying on the Subsidiary Diploma in Mechanical Engineering Level 3 and Connor Potts, 16, from Ashington and Elliott Welsch, 19 from Blakelaw both studying on the BTEC First Extended Certificate Engineering Level 2 along with John Bainbridge, 16, from Whitley Bay who is studying on the Subsidiary Diploma in Electrical Engineering Level 3 were amazed at the size of the factory and were unaware that the factory was spilt in to two halves – one side for the production of chocolate and the other for sugar production (sweets).

The students buddied up with one or two of the qualified technicians and were taken, first of all along to the ‘Daily Operations Review’ meeting which each technician attends at the beginning of their shift to find out what occurred on the previous shift. The outcome of this meeting determines the planning of operational tasks that they need to undertake throughout the day – this includes; testing of machinery, fixing broken machinery, sourcing and ordering new machinery parts, turning, welding, milling and other mechanical and electrical tasks.

The students were then given a tour of the factory, one of only three confectionary factories in the UK, which gave them an insight into the vast mechanical and electrical infrastructure that supports the chocolate and sugar production.

Neil Dorward, Deputy Head of Engineering at TyneMet College said:

“I would like to thank the Management at Nestlé UK for making this visit possible. The students all said that they really enjoyed their day at the factory, they also said that the technicians who looked after them very approachable and were keen that the students gained as much from the day as possible.

“The students also met and talked to some Nestlé UK Apprentices who were working alongside the technicians – feedback from the students was that an apprenticeship at Nestlé UK would be a career that they would seriously consider applying for.”

“We hope to be able to arrange a visit for other students to Nestlé UK in the near future. This is a unique opportunity for students to get an insight into ‘real-life’ factory floor working.”

Phil Dodds, Maintenance Technician at Nestlé UK, who has played a key part in re-introducing Apprenticeship programmes at Nestlé UK, Fawdon, said:

“Due to the lack of skills available in the area and the rising age profile of our technical group we have taken the initiative to grow our own talent through our apprenticeship programme.

“We are delighted with their progress as they have converted their outstanding successes at TyneMet College into exceptional on site engineering practices.

“Nestle UK are always keen to be involved in initiatives which can benefit the community and this event showed how rewarding they can be.

“We produce quality food brands and engage in highly technical engineering on a daily basis which allowed the students to relate their college training to a real manufacturing environment. We hope this insight has inspired them in their drive towards their career goals and continue with their development.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lisa Dawson .