SMEs tap into university talent for digital transformation

With many internships and placements being delayed or cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, Made Smarter – a national movement helping SME manufacturers in the North West to adopt digital technologies – is bucking the trend by offering undergraduates, master’s and PhD students, and graduates from UK universities an opportunity to gain valuable hands-on practical experience.

Interns are working on live projects across the North West which are having a real effect on the business’s long-term success.

Projects range from implementing new hardware or software to developing a digital road map and strategy to support their digital transformation.

Manufacturers are benefiting from the fresh insight of a digital native to help them adopt technological tools that result in a raft of benefits, including increased revenue growth, reduced production time, and produce the data and insight for new product and market development.

Interns are benefitting from paid work experience, valuable hands-on practical work experience, a taste of a potential career path, and a foot in the door of a forward-thinking company or industry. A number have even secured permanent jobs.

Fusion Implants, a manufacturer of high-performance veterinary implants from titanium using 3D printing, also offered a job as research and development engineer to James Sage, a recent graduate master’s student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Liverpool, after a successful three-month internship.

The business wanted to develop a pioneering implant to treat condylar fractures in French Bulldogs and needed help analysing hundreds of CT scans using leading-edge biomedical software.

Dr Dan Jones, managing director of Fusion Implants, said: “The Made Smarter internship provides an excellent opportunity for the student to embed themselves in the company for three months, develop skills and gain experience, whilst also providing the company with the opportunity to tackle a specific project and assess the suitability of the student as a potential fulltime employee.”

Fabricon Design, an Ashton-Under-Lyne-based business which uses advanced manufacturing methods to produce innovative plastics, aluminium and steel component designs, was matched to Luke Hickson, a master's postgraduate studying Industrial Digitalisation at Manchester Metropolitan University.

After impressing on projects using CAD design and 3D printing, he secured a permanent job as design and development engineer.

Mark Bushdyhan, managing director of Fabricon Design, said: "Luke is an incredibly fast learner, who takes direction well and can act on his own initiative. His suggestions have proven invaluable and we are incredibly thankful for all his help as part of the Fabricon team. He is a great addition to our business."

Made Smarter www.madesmarter.uk/technical-student-placements