HRH Prince of Wales honours Mazak with Industrial Cadets Top Employer award

Yamazaki Mazak has been awarded Employer of the Year at the 2018 Industrial Cadets Awards, beating the likes of Airbus, the RAF, Airbus and Tata Consultancy Services to the accolade.

Held at the Kelvin Lecture Theatre at The IET’s Savoy Place, London on the 7th March, the awards were presented by HRH The Prince of Wales and celebrate both the achievements of young people who have completed their nationally accredited work-based experience programmes, as well as the vital input, support and efforts of businesses, employers and education organisations.

One of just two accolades open to employers, the Employer of the Year award recognises companies that have demonstrated outstanding engagement with young people and the Industrial Cadets initiative, as well as illustrating best practice in employer engagement on the work experience STEM agenda.

Dave Barnett, Learning & Development Manager at Yamazaki Mazak, commented: “To be awarded Top Employer by such a prestigious organisation, beating the likes of Airbus, the RAF and Tata in the process, is a real testament to Mazak’s commitment to the next generation of engineers.

“Since its inception, the Industrial Cadets has formed an integral element of our engagement strategy with young people in secondary education. We have been privileged to work closely with a number of local schools over the past few years, welcoming them to our European Manufacturing Plant and Technology Centre to give them first-hand experience of some of the latest metal-cutting technologies.

“It was a great honour to welcome HRH The Prince of Wales to Mazak’s Worcester facility in 2013, and to receive the award from him today is extremely special. We are immensely proud of this award, and it would not have been possible without all the hard work undertaken by everyone at Mazak who has helped to organise, facilitate and oversee the Industrial Cadets programme of activities over the last few years. Going forward, Mazak will continue to do everything we can to showcase manufacturing in an exciting and positive light for young people today.”

Richard Smith, European Group Managing Director at Yamazaki Mazak, added: “This is a very proud moment for Yamazaki Mazak. It is very rewarding to see the company being recognised for its commitment to championing the next generation of engineering talent. I would like to extend my thanks to all those who have been involved in the Industrial Cadets programme at Mazak, and in particular to Dave Barnett and Chris Morris, whose invaluable work has laid the foundations for the prestigious award.”

The Industrial Cadets programme was inspired by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2010, with a view to encouraging greater engagement from manufacturing and engineering companies with young people. It offers a number of different programmes, and several thousand people have taken part to date.

As part of its ongoing dedication to developing the future skills of the workforce and investing in students, Mazak offers the ‘Silver Award’ Industrial Cadets package, in which students must complete a minimum of 30 hours work experience. Their time at Mazak is filled with a variety of challenges and activities – such as site visits, hands on problem-solving and critical thinking activities as well as first-hand experiences within the production facility – the aim of which is to equip the students with the skills needed to become engineers.

Throughout the year, Mazak works with six to eight schools, taking on around 30-40 students in total through the scheme. Two past Industrial Cadets have been recruited as full-time employed apprentices at Mazak, and a further five Industrial Cadets have applied for the 2018 intake.