Two students from Nelson and Colne College Sixth Form’s highly successful Career Academy have been taking part in a six week long internship programme at Graham Engineering Ltd.

Graham Engineering accepted two placements from the College, taking on students Sara McConville and Yazmin Cawood for their six week internships. Working within Graham Engineering offered these two students an understanding of working in an engineering business and its organisational structure, as well as giving them the opportunity to work on a project throughout their six week placement, which gives them a sense of achievement.

Career Academies UK is a national charity that links schools and colleges with employers to help prepare young people for the world of work. Students take part in a two year long programme that prepares them for the world of work and which creates a link between students and employers through master-classes, mentoring, workplace visits and internships.

Students from the College have spent their summer internships working with a variety of different employers, including the College’s own Marketing and Student Services departments and their affiliated Business Unit, Mackintosh, Matthew Kibble Transport, Lloyds Bank and or course, Graham Engineering Ltd.

Sara McConville is working alongside Graham Engineering employee Debbie Salmon in the Health and Safety department. Sara is shadowing Debbie to oversee all aspects of Debbie’s job, including working with shop floor personnel and office based staff, following up any improvement suggestions or incidents that may have occurred and sitting in on meetings to look at how environmentally friendly the business is, and can be.

Yazmin Cawood is working with employee Paul Ashworth in the ICT department. She has been helping with the setup of Graham Engineering’s social network platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, as well as writing articles for, and making improvements to, the company’s website.

Yazmin Cawood said, “Having the opportunity to come to Graham Engineering Ltd has really helped me in learning how a business works. The overall experience has been a good one; it is such a positive environment, and everyone instantly made me feel welcome.”

Sara McConville said, “Working alongside Debbie has been really interesting! Graham Engineering is such a welcoming place, all the people are lovely and easy to get along with. They always make you feel part of their team.”

Business Development Manager Taylor Jayne Fox has fully supported the students in their roles at Graham Engineering and said, “We were impressed with how switched on Yazmin and Sara were when we interviewed them for one post; so much so that we decided to rethink and managed to find the resources to support two interns from the College. From day one, it was important for me to make sure they had ‘proper’ jobs – that they were completing work which would be a return on our investment. I’m pleased to say that they have both stepped up to the mark!

I was also pleased to have an opportunity to demonstrate to young people the vast range of opportunities which are available in an engineering setting – It isn’t all manual work! Although it is a male dominated sector, it doesn’t need to be; there are so many jobs which are business critical, from sales and marketing, to HR and finance.

Graham Engineering has been proud to support Yazmin and Sara through their internship and I am pleased to be promoting strong and fulfilling relationships between our business and the students who will potentially become our future workforce.”