After several years of hosting its popular engineering work-experience programme, Gloucestershire-based engineering-technologies company Renishaw has seen an increase in applications for its apprenticeship schemes.
This summer, the company hosted its work-experience weeks for a new cohort of 117 students — aged 15 to 17 — from schools local to its headquarters.
A total of 96 students participated in the engineering programme, while 21 took part in a dedicated software engineering programme.
The engineering students were given a project brief, then tasked with working in teams to create a business plan and concept model of a product by the end of the week, while the software students were asked to work on a coding project.
At the end of the week, all students presented their work to senior management.
New this year was the inclusion of some job shadowing, with each student given the opportunity to shadow a Renishaw employee who was carrying out the same role that they had chosen within their team.
Siobhan Denniff, education out-reach executive at Renishaw, said: “The work-experience weeks are a great opportunity for young people in the area to find out what an engineering career is really like.
“The projects are modelled on the way Renishaw operates, which is why it’s great to see so many work experience students apply for our apprenticeships.
“At this year’s apprenticeship assessment, 15% of the shortlisted applicants were from the work experience programme.
“This is extremely encouraging, particularly as we are seeing an increase in applicants to our software work-
experience scheme, which we expanded from 2017 and now plan to further expand next year.”
For more information on careers in engineering at Renishaw or how to get involved in next year’s work experience, visit the Web site (
www.renishaw.com/careers).