KMF would like to invite you as our guest to The Gadget Show meets Dragons Den on Thursday 12th March 2015 at Britannia Stadium from 10am- 3pm.
This year, over 2,300 Year 10 students from 23 high schools have been involved in KMFs
Young Engineer of the Year project to Design, Print and Pitch a gadget.
Two teams from each of the schools have been selected to display and pitch their gadget
at this event in March. The successful teams will then be judged at a final in June, hosted
by Jason Bradbury from Channel 5s The Gadget Show.
You are welcome to join us on Thursday, 12th March anytime between 10am - 3pm.
The project initiated by Managing Director, Gareth Higgins, to inspire young people and
promote the opportunities available within the engineering sector, continues to exceed all
expectations. KMFs Young Engineer of the Year, (YEOTY), has built momentum and
provides significant benefits to all parties involved.
The initial pilot campaign, The Clock Project, proved hugely successful and highlighted the
real need for industry to work more closely with schools. The feedback from Students,
parents and teachers was all positive and they were astonished by the time and resource
KMF invested into the project.
For KMF, the benefits of running Young Engineer of the Year, (YEOTY), are a reassurance
that the right investments are being made as the project provides the ideal platform to
engage young people and promote the engineering industry, apprenticeships and the worldclass
apprenticeship program that is carried out by KMF.
YEOTY is a long term strategy to recruit future apprentices who, by this scheme, will already
have an understanding of how KMF works and the potential opportunities available to
them. Finding talented youngster to join KMF is the key to the companys future success.
Apprentices are viewed as the golden nuggets who will lead the businesses forward. Time,
resource and money is invested to ensure that apprentices are provided with the best
training, facilities, equipment and have access to opportunities that will ensure they are
equipped with the skills needed to drive the business forward.
Following the success of the pilot campaign, KMF has committed to running an annual
project of the same scale for the foreseeable future. Learning from the experience, KMF also
committed to leaving the school with a legacy and students with a better insight into the
world of work.
With this in mind, KMF invited other local business to engage in the project through sponsoring a school. This would open up career paths for students within their local area
and give them an insight into a number of different industry sectors. Students will benefit
from being involved in a live project that develops basic business skills that are essential
for their career development.
The Clock Project 2013
The Clock project was launched to 16 local high schools and over 1,700 students took part.
The students were equipped with a simple design brief, a clock mechanism and batteries,
their challenge was to make a clock that could be manufactured and sold on the high
street.
Over 604 clocks were received back at KMF for judging, the sheer volume and quality of
the designs received confirmed to KMF that this was the right thing to do - giving young
people an opportunity to see their potential grow, can make a real difference.
Jason Bradbury, from Channel 5s The Gadget Show, hosted the awards ceremony and was
thoroughly impressed with the work KMF is carrying out commenting, We should take
this nationally and I would certainly support it. We hear these sayings that Great Britain
used to be great and that we have let it go a bit but the thing is, its coming back again and
its thanks to competitions like this.
The Greenpower Project 2014
2014 saw KMF work with Greenpower Education Trust, (Greenpower work to promote
sustainable engineering to young people). 18 local high schools were provided with a
Formula 24 Kit Car and KMF found Sponsors to provide both financial and mentoring
support to the schools.
There were milestone events along the way in preparation for the big Race Day, which
was held at Darley Moor where all 18 schools competed for the fastest lap, furthest
distance travelled and best designed car.
3D Printing- Gadget show meets Dragons Den 2015
This year sees KMF work with 25 high schools again Sponsors have been incorporated to
help schools build the much needed school industry links. Each school has been provided
with a 3D printer and Year 10 students have been challenged to make a marketable Gadget
For the Year 10 students involved, career doors have been opened by working with and
being exposed to 24 local companies. The skills used throughout the project will be
transferable and help them stand out amongst the crowd when looking for employment.
The project is a win-win scenario and a model of best practice, that could, potentially, be
picked up by government and rolled out nationally to address the potential skills shortage
faced by many industries and to help better equip our future workforce with the skills
needed by industry. Students, Teachers, Schools and Employers are all gaining from the
project.