Last week OPM opened its doors to the Business Study Teachers at Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College, Northwich. The main aim of the visit was to provide the team with an insight into potential future career paths, as well as show them the variety of jobs and skills in the sector.
Claire Hillier, Head of the Business & IT Dept. said “Our College provides a great basis and learning environment, but industrial visits like this turn the text books and study into reality.
Our team are incredibly passionate about lean manufacturing and innovation and teaching it; it should always inspire, and with visits like today, the team got to see how the topics we teach in the classroom every day, transpire in the future careers of our students. The site is a perfect example of lean manufacturing and automation that is great to see in operation.
The visit started with a presentation and introduction to the company, followed by a site tour to see first-hand how the products are made and the scale of the whole manufacturing process. The next stop was our new digital press where Claire and the team got to print their own personalised labels to take back to school. The visit finished with a lively Q&A session.
Vicky commented, “We’ve come here to get inspiration so we can offer our pupils an idea of the pathways that are there for them in employment, and it’s been amazing. I’ve got products at home that I have seen been printed today!
Clare added, we think it is really important to increase the ties we’ve got with industry. There is a science behind labels and packaging regards materials, and the function printed products play in our everyday life that we take for granted. It was also good to hear about what OPM is doing towards sustainability and understand the benefits of working together with our pupils to get a better understanding of recycling”.
We hope that the pupils get the opportunity to visit us also, as we have had to postpone due to Covid , But we hope by their teachers visit they can get to feel more connected to manufacturing businesses, more aware of where products come from and how they are made. Hopefully this project will ignite further engagement with other local schools and stimulate more interest in our apprenticeship scheme. Chris Ellison OPM MD.
