Bishops Castle, Conyers School & RR 2pm

97% of our apprentices complete their programme with us (v national average of 74%). We work with a huge supply chain that many of our apprentices will work with depending on their role.

could you give us some examples of companies in your supply chain, as it would help us with the unit of work we are doing

we do train a small number of apprentices for our supply chain too as we have our own apprenticeship academy which is Offsted rated outstanding. But majority of our apprentices are our employees

Customers include Boeing and Airbus. Suppliers range from Gardners in UK to KHI/IHI in Japan to AIDC in Taiwan. We have supplier all over the world

80% of the 20,000 components in an engine are made by our supply chain

can you name some of the companies you have connection with, so that we can do some further research

we also have a indirect supply chain eg no production materials and services from building new facilities, machine tools to toilet rolls and food & drink for our cafes and restaurants

Hispano Suiza in France, ITP in spain, McBraida in UK

Could you tell us about you background and engineering specialism

I was an apprentice machinist - then completed a BSc in mechanical engineering with specialism in manufacture. Masters in Systems Engineering. Generalist rather than specialist. Previous roles include commercial in purchasing, supply chain management, programme management, IT implementation (SAP), logistics and building new facility in Singapore where I lived and worked for 3 years. Now lead on Inspire (future generation) and engage (todays employees & leaders)

any more questions :)

could you work for Rolls-Royce if you went to university first, rather than an apprenticeship

yes of course. We take on over 300 interns in the UK from 10weeks to 1 year placement. Nearly 50% come back to us on our graduate programmes - we are recruiting 250 grads

take a look at [link removed] - loads more information on our programmes and people

what is the most exciting project you have been involved with.

the 3 words that our employees use to describe how we feel at RR are Brilliance, Freedom and Purpose !!

we are not looking for A* - we are looking for talented people with passion, determination, curiosity and skills such as communication, team work, problem solving

min requirement re grades are B's C's depending on programme

most exciting project - arriving in a swamp area in Singapore in portacabin, with snakes around and leaving a world class facility and people building Trent Aero Engines

I have loved my time at RR - am as excited about what I do now than when I started over 30 years ago :) 15 or so jobs, 6 or 7 careers all enabled by an interest and determination to work in STEM subjects