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B6 Students Visit MBDA

Students from The Sixth Form Bolton’s Professional Growth Programme's STEM Pathway were invited to attend a workplace safari day at MBDA in Bolton. The B6 Careers Team worked with the Outreach Lead from MBDA to organise this work experience day, which was designed to broaden the students' knowledge of the manufacturing sector, develop new skills and make students aware of MBDA's early careers programmes. 

Our hosts for the day were two Operations Apprentices' and a first year Engineering Apprentice who began the day with an overview of MBDA, explaining who they are as a company and information about the products they make across their different sites.

Students were then split into groups and tasked with building a tower from paper that would be strong enough to hold a bottle of water for 30 seconds. Students were given information how much each piece of paper and sellotape would cost, and details of bonuses for building a tower over the required height. Students had to use their knowledge of Physics in the design process, whilst also ensuring the build was on track to make a profit. They were thrown a curveball halfway through the task when the client brief changed, but our students used their problem-solving skills to overcome this. All three groups displayed excellent teamwork and communication skills during this task, with all teams succeeding in meeting the brief and building a tower that held the weight of the bottled water. The winning team impressed MBDA staff by building a tower over two times the required height, giving them a large profit for the project. 

Following lunch we had a tour of the factory and students were impressed by how much we got to see on the site tour, gaining detailed knowledge of the testing processes each product goes through during production. We rounded the day off with an Early Careers Talk where we learned more about MBDA's Work Experience Programme, Summer Internships, Apprenticeships and Graduate Schemes. Our students left with some top tips on how to stand out during apprenticeship or graduate applications, and an understanding of the various careers available at a company like MBDA with STEM based A levels or a STEM Degree. 

 Emily Dover, Careers & Employability Advisor at The Sixth Form found the day to be really beneficial to our students saying:

"We are very grateful for MBDA for hosting our students for the day, we really enjoyed the experience and for our students, taking part in this day will add weight and impact to future university, apprenticeship and employment applications. In the Bolton area, logistics and manufacturing is one of the big areas of employment growth so we were delighted to secure this opportunity, to allow students to explore this as a possible future career goal in area there is a skills shortage."

There was some fantastic student feedback with first-year A Level Business Studies, Graphics and Level Three Vocational Information Technology student, Raza Ali Mohammad, saying:

“Visiting MBDA’s manufacturing facility was great experience and understanding the technology and the innovative side of MBDA was even more interesting. Seeing the commitment and time put into crafting something seemingly small yet impactful was truly fascinating from my perspective in MBDA. I enjoyed the tower building project as it involved skills of teamwork and collaboration of ideas, this taught everyone the importance of working together and making an impact collectively in need of time and effort”