What’s Been Happening at Orthoplastics in 2019?
It’s been a busy 2019 at Orthoplastics so far, there have been lots of exciting developments, collaboration opportunities and we have continued to focus on employee development. Here are some highlights of what has been happening at Orthoplastics this year.
Lancaster University Visit
Orthoplastics recently spent the day at Lancaster University to explore the potential for setting up a long-term collaborative partnership. The day began with us giving a general overview explaining what it is Orthoplastics does and the services we provide, and where we are heading as an organisation in terms of our future plans and aspirations.
The remainder of the day was spent attending several networking sessions with various departmental leads in order to gauge whether the university can potentially slot in with our organisation’s strategic needs.
The idea was to explore potential projects which will benefit both Orthoplastics and Lancaster University, and we were able to chat with the leads from several faculties including the Data Science Institute, the Engineering Faculty, the Management School, as well as the leads from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, Employer Engagement and the lead regarding Student Placements.
The discussions were extremely informative and have allowed us to begin to look into ways in which we can create a mutually beneficial future relationship.
Continued Staff Development
At Orthoplastics, we are committed to ensuring our staff have access to the training they need to further develop their skills and knowledge and enhance their work performance. We are currently rolling out Lean training across the business to 204 employees to ensure everyone has a good baseline understanding of dealing with challenges in the leanest manner.
Our Operational Excellence Manager, Paul Gordon is rolling out the training and with around 40-50% of the team having undertaken the training, he has received some great feedback on the course.
In addition to our Lean training, Team Leader and Customer Services NVQ’s are taking place at co-ordinator and team leader level across the business. We currently have around 10-15 employees undertaking the NVQ’s and will continue to roll them out until all relevant staff have obtained the qualification.
Getting Females into Engineering
Females entering the engineering sector has been a hot topic for the last few years, and here at Orthoplastics we fully support and encourage those who want to work with us or experience what a career in engineering could be like through employment, apprenticeship and work experience opportunities.
We’ve recently welcomed a female Miller to the Orthoplastics team and Lauren Schofield recently completed her apprenticeship with us and is now continuing with her HNC in Engineering. We’re looking forward to welcoming a female student from Burnley College who will be joining us for a work experience placement.
Our work experience and apprenticeship opportunities give those who undertake them a first-hand insight into what a career in engineering involves and can be a great way to introduce engineering to the younger generation.