Coventry University’s Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) has been given a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its pioneering work in ‘creating’ industry-ready graduates.

The award was presented at a Buckingham Palace ceremony by HRH the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Queen’s Anniversary Prizes are granted every two years and to recognise excellence and innovation in the work carried out by UK further- and higher-education institutions.

AME, a partnership between Coventry University and Unipart Manufacturing Group, has ‘rewritten the rule book’ when it comes to developing engineering and manufacturing graduates.

Known as the UK’s first ‘faculty on the factory floor’, it gives students access to live manufacturing projects and ‘state of the art’ technologies in a bid to accelerate their careers.

In addition to taking a new approach to education, AME has a team of technology specialists and professors who are working to help develop new powertrain and energy transfer solutions for the automotive, aerospace and renewable-energy sectors.

AME director Carl Perrin (www.coventry.ac.uk/ame) said: “The Queen’s Anniversary Prize is a proud moment for both Coventry University and Unipart Manufacturing Group; we took an ambitious approach to pitching industry and academia together and it has paid off.

“AME thrives on the fact that the engineering experience starts the minute a student begins their course, not at the end of it, and this ‘hands-on’ approach creates graduates that have an immediate positive impact when they join a company.”