This week is the 15th annual week-long celebration of apprenticeships, and Farrat is on a mission to show how accessible mentoring and practical experience is key to ensuring that young people from all walks of life have access to opportunities in engineering and manufacturing.
Farrat will be joining forces with the Social Mobility Foundation, a charity which aims to make a practical improvement in social mobility for high achieving 16–17-year-olds from low-income backgrounds who have the ability to flourish in the top professions, but who lack the networks and guidance in their field to fulfil their potential.
We will be supporting the Social Mobility Foundation through their Aspiring Professionals Programme, helping students via mentoring, work placements, further education application advice and professional skills development sessions.
Having already worked with the Social Mobility Foundation in 2021, with work placement access for those looking for a good insight into what it means to work for an engineering company with global reach, we are excited to put extended time and effort into nurturing the engineering talent of the future.
Mentors at Farrat
Those from Farrat acting as mentors will support students in a number of ways, including increasing their understanding of their desired career and professional life. The mentoring relationship is extremely valuable in helping to guide mentees through their time on the Social Mobility Foundation programme, their further education or university applications, and in helping them to explore their professional interests further.
A key part of our Farrat vision is a sustained commitment to local communities, STEM and social mobility, and in 2022 we will be working towards ambitious targets within our social mobility success pillar, to support young and socially disadvantaged people in our community,
states Sally Moxon, Head of People at Farrat.
At Farrat, we believe it is so important to build a diverse workforce of talent for the future, as well as giving something back to the communities in which we live and work. Our partnership with the Social Mobility Foundation will be instrumental in helping us to provide opportunities to talented young people and help them to fulfil their potential, both now and in their future careers.
On a mission to reduce the engineering skill shortage in the UK
Not only will this be rewarding for those involved and helpful to the young people being mentored, but this will help to safeguard the future of engineering in the UK.
The UK needs to significantly increase the number of people with engineering skills. In 2014, it was reported that the annual shortfall of STEM skills was 40,000. In 2017, the annual shortfall of the right engineering skills was still anywhere between 25,500 and up to 60000.
We need to double, at least, the number of UK based university engineering students. Encouraging young people from a wider range of backgrounds that might not have had the knowledge or means to go into engineering, will not only reduce this skills shortage, but bring exciting new perspectives to the sector.
Find out more
To learn more about Farrat’s upcoming social mobility projects, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram where we regularly share stories about our people, industries, and the wider community.
Or get in touch with the Social Mobility Foundation to find out more about accessing the Aspiring Professionals Programme.
