Next Gen Makers appoints business development manager

Next Gen Makers has announced the appointment of Joseph Poxon as business development manager.

The appointment is part of an ambitious growth strategy for Next Gen Makers as the company expands its engineering apprenticeship best practice initiatives to help more manufacturers throughout the UK.

Mr Poxon holds a BSc in Product Design and Management from Aston University and previously studied the Extended Diploma in Engineering at Birmingham Metropolitan College.

After graduating, Mr Poxon expanded a university project into the UK’s leading brand of 100% natural, eco-friendly male grooming products. The brand was stocked in over 350 stores across Great Britain and internationally and was successfully sold to investors in mid-2023.

Adam Tipper, managing director of Next Gen Makers comments: “Joseph demonstrates a clear passion for engineering and a strong understanding of the skills shortage. In his career to date he has also demonstrated the kind of entrepreneurial instincts that a challenger brand such as ours looks for in a role of this nature.

“As an engineer in his own right and somebody that has recently been faced with the same kind of choices regarding pathways into the sector that many young people face, Joseph is well placed to advise businesses on the benefits of our Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme and employer Kitemark.”

Through the Next Gen Makers Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme, engineering and manufacturing companies throughout the UK can benchmark their approach to running their apprenticeship schemes against industry best practice, identify where to improve and learn from a community of like-minded firms to share best practice and ideas.

The result is an increased ability to better attract and retain early careers talent and bridge skills gaps – with many companies achieving accreditation via the programme for the Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Kitemark. The kitemark recognises excellent employers for engineering apprenticeships and is backed by national manufacturing organisation Make UK.

Engineering employers involved in the best practice and Kitemark initiative are then profiled within an online directory and school careers resource, raising awareness of them as an excellent choice for school and college leavers local to them that are seeking to start a career in the sector.

On his appointment, Mr Poxon added: “I am excited to join Next Gen Makers at this exciting time for the company. The Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme has grown into a thriving community of companies that engage in benchmarking and best practice sharing and as a result are much better placed to future proof their businesses than they were before.

“The Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Kitemark is now recognised nationally as a prestigious mark that is enabling the kind of employers that go the extra mile for apprentices, to differentiate and get recognised as best in class employers.

“I look forward to helping more companies to achieve this status, in addition to assisting others to learn about and implement the best practice methodologies into their apprenticeship schemes that are proving to be successful for succeeders within our community.”

Next Gen Makers
www.nextgenmakers.co.uk