On July 24th the recently formed Young Professionals in Defence Forum met at General Dynamics ‘The Edge’ facility near Newport in South Wales, to discuss the topic ‘Acquisition and Retention of Graduates and Apprentices in the Defence Industry.’ Emma Miller, Secretary of the Forum tells all...
The Young Professionals in Defence Forum is made up of over 20 graduates and apprentices in their first few years in the defence industry working in a variety of roles from a diverse range of companies across the UK. Launched in December 2011, the YPDF meets every quarter for a day of discussion, networking and presentations: providing a platform for the newest members of the defence industry to hear from and feed into industry seniors.
The session was led by the recently elected Chair of the YPDF – Shaun Smith from Lockheed Martin UK and gave the 20 representatives from the 16 companies present the chance to discuss their experiences starting work in the defence industry. The morning meeting was a highly successful exchange of opinions and will form the basis of a paper to be presented to the ADS Defence Sector Board and Small Companies Committee. With the aim of assisting all companies throughout the Industry to better understand Industry recruiting practices and achieve best practice, the paper will be the first publication by the Forum since it launched last year.
During the afternoon members of the Forum were treated to a presentation on The Edge and the chance to see some of the products being developed with the assistance of the General Dynamics Team. These included a demonstration of AMG Systems Ltd’s PanoCam 360 degree camera, Raytheon BBN’s Boomerang as supplied by Maxord Ballistics Ltd, RolaTube’s rolled up mast system, Comrod’s tape antenna for Man-Pack radios and Extreme Cases’ Smart Beam projector.
The Forum concluded the day with a presentation on General Dynamics’ Specialist Vehicle programme and a history of tank warfare before starting their long journeys back home.
The day was an extremely useful meeting of the Forum and we’re grateful to General Dynamics and the team at The Edge for hosting and supporting the YPDF. For more information on The Edge please visit http://www.the-edge-uk.co.uk/
There are still places left in the Forum. If your company would like to have a representative in the YPDF please contact Charles Fletcher, the ADS Coordinator of the YPDF, at charles.fletcher@adsgroup.org.uk
Emma Miller is a Graduate Engineer at MBDA and Secretary of the YPDF, currently on secondment to ADS.
