Children from schools across the North East have been visiting Nissan to celebrate 10 years of their Skills Foundation programme.
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00:00Death Star, we haven't done the Death Star yet, we are not done with the Legend board yet, but we are going to do the Death Star.
00:12Ok Nathan, what's the rationale behind today's event then?
00:15So today we're here to celebrate 10 years of the Nissan Skills Foundation.
00:20You can hear by the noise behind us.
00:22In that time we've engaged with over 100,000 school children across 500 schools.
00:28We've got 200 school children here today to mark that celebration.
00:32And it's all about inspiring the next generation of engineers, mechanics, designers?
00:36It's exactly about that. It's a process that's working.
00:39We've got people who've come through the Skills Foundation, dozens of them, who've come back and are all working within the plan now.
00:46Hundreds across the wider industry.
00:48Is it important to keep these jobs in Sun and the North East as well once people get qualified and get these careers to keep it here in the North East?
00:55Of course, we've got a bright future here within Sunderland.
00:58We've announced through EV360, ensuring that our region is the hub of EV manufacturing.
01:05We've got the cars of the future, you can see behind us some of the talent of the future.
01:10That's exactly what this course is about.
01:12Ensuring that the STEM subjects, they're the building blocks of the talent that we need within manufacturing here within the region.
01:20There's a lot of girls from the primary schools there, is that part of it as well, of getting girls into STEM?
01:24Absolutely, a real key part for us.
01:26One of our 13 courses aims specifically about them, but as today, we always ensure that the courses have great representation.
01:34Can you tell me about the £14.6 million which is getting invested to broaden STEM both at Nissan and in the North East?
01:40£14.6 million across the wider region to ensure that the industry, that's ourselves, our supply chain, our wider partners, have the talent of the future.
01:52Skills Foundation is one part of that.
01:54It's ensuring that we have the full talent that we need to build those cars of the future.
01:59On a practical level, what's it going to mean for Nissan? More classrooms, more children coming through.
02:03So what we've announced today is that we're doubling our activities in terms of the Skills Foundation.
02:09Second classroom, we're going to have a reach of 16,000 school children each year.
02:22Lewis, what's it like to be here today when you consider 10 years ago you were sat with those children are now?
02:32I know, 10 years ago it was crazy that I was one of those students.
02:35It's like a full circle moment, I think looking back it's really rewarding that now my job is to inspire those little children coming in.
02:42So definitely quite a proud day to be here at Nissan.
02:47And was it coming here 10 years ago and taking part in the workshop which inspired you to go into a career at Nissan?
02:53Yes, for sure. The trip 10 years ago where we built Lego, we've seen robots, we've met female engineers.
02:58I think if it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't have considered Nissan as a career when I grow up.
03:03It's such a local company to where I live, I would have never considered it had I not come on that school trip.
03:09So I know that a lot of young girls and boys are going to think the same as what I do.
03:14So is that your hope, that the kids sat there and they'll take the same path as you do?
03:17Yes, I hope a lot of the children consider careers here because they're all fantastic kids.
03:21It would be a pleasure to have any of them when they grow up.