G&S Smirthwaite Ltd
G&S Smirthwaite Ltd design and manufacture specialist equipment and furniture for people with special needs, and for conductive education purposes.
Over the past six years G&S Smirthwaite Ltd have received a handful of students from the Leondardo Da Vinci work place scheme. During that time six young students have joined the company, each for a period of three months, including two commercial students and four technical students, three studying industrial engineering and one engineering design student.
Students bring their skills to the company while gaining valuable experience
The Leonardo Da Vinci scheme was introduced to help citizens, whatever their age, skill level or social origin, to cope with the new demands of the economy and the labour market. It gives them the opportunity to go and gain vocational work experience abroad, improving their knowledge in another Member State or the European Community whilst topping up their language skills before they go.. So far it has given 130,000 citizens the chance to improve their knowledge in another country.
Alun explains 'a young lady from Portugal organised research and made contact with potential Portuguese distributors. She introduced us to the distributor who was appointed five years ago, and who remains our distributor today. A French Industrial Engineering student did a great deal of work producing product costings. Such was he personality that when she left us everyone in the factory chipped in to provide a leaving present.'
'The individuals have all contributed to the development of our business'
The engineering students have worked on projects under the direction of a member of staff and each one has made a good contribution during their time here. This year we have a young man who is studying industrial engineering at the University of Malaga who is working within our R&D team.
What do G&S Smirthwaite Ltd gain from this experience?
I asked Alun how he felt the international student had positively benefitted the company, he commented 'we obviously gain from their work and from their presence amongst our staff. What do the students gain? I think they enjoy a new environment, an opportunity to improve their English and a social experience, because in every case our young employees have encouraged the students to join them for a number of nights out. It doesn't cost us anything and we enjoy having them here. It also makes our staff more aware of Europe. So far our students have come from Portugal, Spain, Finland, Belgium and France.'
If your company feels it could benefit from the experience that an international student could bring to your organisation, contact the Leonardo Da Vinci scheme projects office for more information. There is no charge for having a student and you can request that their skills match those that your company requires.
An incredible opportunity to undertake projects where language and cultural barriers been present in the past!
Visit the G & S Smirthwaite website at www.smirthwaite.co.uk
