Brompton Bicycles

If you were looking for a company which exemplified the finest traditions of the golden era of British manufacturing, Brompton Bicycles would not be a bad place to start. Innovation, a focus on premium quality, award-winning design and world-class precision engineering have helped the Brentford-based folding bike builder become the UK’s largest bicycle manufacturer, and a global leader in its market.

Brompton Bicycles is also a company which believes in the value of investing in the future. Committed to building on its success by attracting the best talent, the company has forged strong links with schools, colleges and universities in a bid to inspire a whole new generation of budding manufacturing geniuses. The latest development has seen Managing Director Will Butler-Adams become an official ambassador, or employer champion, for the Diploma in Manufacturing and Product Design (MPD), a new industry-linked qualification for 14 to 19 year olds, which will be rolled out in schools and colleges from September 2009 as an alternative to GCSEs and A levels.

Butler-Adams, who has overseen the most rapid period of growth in Brompton Bicycles’ 25-year history since arriving at the start of the decade, believes it is the example set by companies such as his which can help manufacturing shake off its grimy, low-paid, low-skilled image and once again start to attract the very best available talent.

“I get very frustrated by how few good, talented people would consider manufacturing as a career compared to other industries and business sectors,” he said. “In my view, the way to change that is to support things like the Diploma which give companies the opportunity to engage with young people and show them the realities which are too often masked by general perception. Will it work? I don’t know. But is it worth a try? Definitely.

“Brompton Bicycles is not a huge company, but I think that this in itself means we set an example. You hear plenty about British manufacturing being dead, but not a lot of attention is given to the thriving hub of small manufacturing companies that still exist. Young people don’t get told that there is money to be made in manufacturing anymore, that it is one sector where becoming the owner/manager of a company is still a very real possibility. A lot of the facts are misrepresented and misunderstood, and we need to put that right.”

As an employer champion for the Diploma in Manufacturing and Product Design, Butler-Adams is tasked with encouraging other employers and business figures to get involved with how the Diploma is taught. The Diploma’s content has been designed by the industry-linked Sector Skills Councils responsible for skills and training in all manufacturing sectors, in order to make it as relevant to the real world of manufacturing as possible.

But companies are also being asked to form partnerships, or consortia, with schools and colleges to help deliver the Diploma. Their role could include offering work placements, conducting site visits, giving talks and lectures, setting topics and tasks for projects, or simply assisting with teachers and tutors’ continued professional development so students get the best possible taste of what a career in manufacturing might be like.

“It is essential that we give young people a chance to find out the realities of the industry,” said Butler-Adams. “Youngsters only tend to learn ‘pure’ subjects in school without understanding any practical applications, or else they study something they never use again. What is the point of that? The Diploma takes an entirely different tack and has the chance to engage young people in the realities of working life. By teaching them skills that will prove useful later down the line, we can show them that manufacturing is varied, interesting and often a lot of fun.

“At Brompton, we already work very closely with local schools and colleges. We have had a steady stream of students coming in to do projects, we take school pupils on two week work placements, we host site visits and we have made a couple of films aimed at students. I think just coming here opens a lot of peoples’ eyes - it’s a bit like Willie Wonka’s factory. Each bike has 1200 different parts and each one is designed and made on site, right down to the fabric for the carry case, so at one end you get bits of raw metal coming in, at the other, a folding bike appears. It is very rare in modern manufacturing to see everything made under one roof like that, and I think it gives people a different perspective when they see the entire process from beginning to end.”

The Diploma in Manufacturing and Product Design is being introduced as part of the second wave of 17 new Diplomas which will be available to all school pupils in England by 2013. It will be available at three levels – Foundation, Higher and Advanced. It is intended to open up a variety of progression routes to participating students, including employment, Apprenticeships, Further and Higher Education.

All students taking the Diploma in MPD will study business and management, materials science and product design, and production and processing as core topics or ‘Principal Learning’. Additional and Specialist Learning options will allow students to choose from a range of vocational manufacturing qualifications, GCSEs and A levels to supplement their principal learning. This will be further complemented by work experience, an extended project, and assessment in functional skills in English, maths and IT, as well as employability skills such as self-management, team working and reflective learning.