On Thursday 28th October, Brompton Bicycle teamed up with Inspiring the Future to celebrate National Manufacturing Day and introduce young people to exciting careers within the sector.
Primary, secondary and college-aged children all had the chance to take part and discover the huge range of roles and people involved in producing and selling Brompton’s bikes.
The day kicked off with a virtual activity involving primary schools in Bradford, Somerset and London taking part in the Primary Futures’ ‘What’s My Line?’ game. The game required pupils to ask questions to try and guess the jobs of the three volunteers working in different roles at Brompton. After some excellent guesses from pupils, the volunteers were revealed to be Willemijn, a Sales Representative who joined the call from the Netherlands, along with London-based volunteers Lisa, Head of Performance Marketing and Phill, Operations Director, who gave the children an interactive virtual tour of the Brompton factory in Greenford, London.
One child shared that they “loved when the volunteers told us how they got to the position they are in now because it really inspired me to see what I can do in the future. One of them went to college, and I want to do the same thing too.”
Alex, Assistant Headteacher from Dairy Meadow Primary School in west London, fed back that his Year 5 class were “buzzed” after meeting the volunteers and that “they now want Brompton to make foldable hoverboards!”. He also loved how the session encouraged pupils to “think about how their learning has an endpoint” by bringing to life topics from their design & technology and science lessons.
The second part of the day saw secondary and college students studying design & technology and engineering visit Brompton HQ in Greenford where they had a tour of the factory and enjoyed finding out about the science behind each bike design and the intricate practices that go into creating each product. The activity gave students the chance to find out about the range of manufacturing jobs available to them in the near future.
A huge thank you to Brompton for their support in organising such an exciting day and a special thanks to each volunteer who generously gave up their time to inspire our young people.
If you’re interested in supporting your employees to volunteer in schools and helping to introduce young people to the exciting opportunities within your own sector, get in touch! Contact us at: enquiries@inspiringthefuture.org.