In recognition of the contribution that the Institute is making to the wider industry in the UK, ICME National President Martin Dudley FICME and Training and EPA Manager Amy Worrallo MICME were presented with a Judges Commendation certificate at the recent Best of British Casting Awards Dinner, organised by the Cast Metals Federation.
The judges noted that the team at ICME had worked to significantly increase the range and number of technical training courses available to the UK industry, in addition to a range of leadership and management courses. In fact, over 450 days of training were delivered to the industry during 2023, an increase of over 21% compared with 2022, which is significant when considered against the backdrop of some real challenges that have been faced by the Institute and the industry over the last couple of years.
Feedback from the courses has also been really positive, and particularly for the new Certificate in Cast Iron Production, Metallurgy and Quality Control course which has directly led to cost savings and process improvements for the companies who have put learners on the course. The Institute is also the only End Point Assessment organisation for the metal casting apprenticeship enabling apprentices to complete their apprenticeships.
ICME was also successful in obtaining over £140k of funding from the Foundry Training Trust to support the development of industry training and succession planning through developing a database of training and HR contacts, and to help improve the image of the industry, including work with the Cast Metals Federation to promote careers in casting and increase the take-up of apprenticeships in the industry.
The funding has helped to pay for a 3D virtual foundry tour, called ‘Casting my Future’ that school children and young students can watch using a 3D viewer and a mobile phone, whilst hearing about the various ways in which the industry serves modern life by recycling secondary metal into new components for all kinds of important applications as part of the circular economy for metals, as well as the technologies like metrology, CAD, simulation and modelling.
As Pam Murrell, CMF CEO explains, “Awareness of the range of careers available in our industry is poor and we know that foundries face challenges with finding young people to take-up their apprentice opportunities.
“The ‘Casting my Future’ project aims to address this through developing a virtual reality 360-degree tour of a foundry that can be shown to young people (and to their teachers and family members) with a supporting website and advice on where to go for more information. Key to the success of this is the direct engagement between schools and their local foundry businesses and we have a pilot project being trialled with 12 schools in the West Midlands area as part of a wider industry awareness project. We have been working on this project with Next Gen Makers and the Digital Gap and hope that it will build upon the outreach engagement work being done already by many foundries using the Foundry in a Box kit with their local schools and colleges.”
During the evening guests from the industry were able to watch a short video about the Casting my Future project the link to which is below.
In accepting the award, Martin Dudley FICME, owner of Thomas Dudley Foundry said. “We have ambitious plans for ICME to become the ‘go to’ place for training in the UK castings and foundry industry and this accolade is a great boost for the team but we, as the industry, all need to play our role in supporting training and development for the future of the industry in the UK. We hope that the Casting My Future pilot can help more young people be encouraged to have a career in casting.”
Promotional video can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtV7oUul63M&list=PLD-oGDKTfFsRn_dibsOicvM90canmsZRl&index=3&t=1s
