Seven Liverpool city region schools are among 40 across England taking part in a careers programme with automotive giant Jaguar Land Rover. Tony McDonough reports

Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is reaching out to 40 schools across the UK to offer career opportunities to 40,000 students from diverse backgrounds.

JLR operates across several locations in England. They include the Halewood factory in Merseyside where more than 3,500 workers assemble the Range Rover, Evoque and the Land Rover Discovery Sport.

By 2025 a new all-electric SUV model will be rolling off the production line at the site as part of a £15bn project to electrify the company’s product range. JLR also operates in Coventry and Warwickshire, Birmingham, the Black Country and Solihull.

Its Schools Partnership Programme aims to help 40,000 students from diverse backgrounds build future careers in areas such as electrical and software engineering, digital and data roles and autonomous technologies.

This programme is focused on improving opportunities for groups underrepresented in the industry including young females, pupils from challenging socio-economic backgrounds and those with English as a second language.

In collaboration with The Careers and Enterprise Company, JLR identified 40 secondary schools that reflected the company’s diversity and inclusion aspirations.

In Liverpool city region those schools are North Liverpool Academy, Kings Leadership Academy, The Academy of St Nicholas, Gateacre School, Holly Lodge Girls College, St Julies Catholic School, St Margarets.

Three times per academic year, JLR will offer the following:

• JLR engineers will meet teachers to help them to build STEM-focused lesson plans in order to apply the curriculum to real-world future career opportunities.
• The company’s STEM Propulsion Network will offer pupils opportunities to work with JLR Engineers on projects such as building mini-electric vehicles.
• It will facilitate networking amongst teachers to increase school-to-school support.
• JLR will run careers workshops, supporting pupils from key stage 3 to 5 with decision making and application submissions.
• And the Jaguar TCS Racing Team has committed to supporting the new programme, aiming to inspire, educate and nurture a next generation of talent that is diverse and inclusive.

Nigel Blenkinsop, JLR’s executive director of enterprise performance and quality, said: “We recognise that young people from challenging socio-economic backgrounds, ethnic minorities and women are underrepresented in our business.

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“So we are proud to be able to work with these schools to nurture future workplace skills and opportunities for the next generation of talent.

“JLR is committed to fostering a more diverse, inclusive and unified culture to better understand and serve our clients, fuel our innovation and engage and inspire our people.”