Posted to News on 22nd Jan 2019, 10:54
Renishaw: official partner of Cardiff Blues Community Foundation
To continue the success of Renishaw's education outreach programme, the global engineering company has become an official partner of the Cardiff Blues Community Foundation. The three-year partnership will see the Guinness PRO14 rugby club's community team deliver a new secondary school programme to raise the aspirations of year 8 and 9 pupils in the local area.
The programme is already being piloted in six schools in the Cardiff region, where over 100 children are already taking part. As part of the partnership, Renishaw also sponsors the Cardiff Blues Ladies Team and has supported a Girl's Rookie Rugby Day for over 600 people at the Cardiff City House of Sport Air Dome and a Girls Elite Camp at the club's Vale training base. The Wales international scrum-half Tomos Williams and Blues Ladies' flanker Kira Philpott also act as brand ambassadors for Renishaw.
The partnership reinforces the work of Renishaw's education outreach programme, which it runs to inspire young people in South Wales, Bristol and Gloucestershire to consider engineering as a possible future career option. As part of this, Renishaw works with a number of partners, as well as running workshops, activities and events in-house.
Chris Pockett, Head of Communications at Renishaw explains: "As a significant employer in the Cardiff region it is important for us to engage with our local communities, especially in education, skills development and encouraging greater gender diversity in the engineering sector. This sponsorship strengthens Renishaw's involvement in the education and rugby community. We have a particular focus on women's rugby, due to the parallels between the gender stereotyping in rugby and in engineering.
Nadine Griffiths, Community Foundation Director of Cardiff Blues says: "It is brilliant to link up with such a world-renowned company, with such a significant presence within our community. The partnership forms part of our long-term commitment to help children fulfil their potential, follow their dreams and highlight opportunities to pursue the career paths that interest them, making them more employable and improving our communities.
"Almost 50 children from Tonyrefail Community School, Bryncelynnog Comprehensive School and Whitchurch High School have nearly completed the course. We have had some great feedback from the pupil's visit to the impressive Renishaw plant at Miskin and University visits are planned for later this month."
Renishaw employs over 400 people at its Miskin plant near Cardiff and is also the largest private-sector employer in Gloucestershire. In 2018, Renishaw celebrated its 45th birthday and in that time has grown into a world-leading engineering company with over 5,000 employees.
Follow the link for more information on Renishaw's education outreach programme.
