With the engineering skills crisis worsening year on year, Morson Group has once again shown a proactive approach to tackling the problem by inspiring a new generation of engineers to become leaders in their field with their annual Early Careers Development Programme (ECDP) conference in Manchester.
Coinciding with Career Development Month in November, the conference brought together almost 150 engineers, architects, and project managers from across the Group’s Morson Projects, Waldeck and Ematics engineering businesses to challenge, inspire and encourage them as they progress on the award-winning ECDP. New recruits came together with those already advancing through the programme and mentors and senior colleagues from across the organisation, taking on problem solving and engineering challenges to encourage collaborative working, as well hearing talks about where their career could take them.
The conference comes as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warns that the UK lacks the technical and engineering skills to deliver major infrastructure projects. It also follows comments by IMechE president Dr Clive Hickman OBE about the essential need to invest in the development of engineers to deliver the government’s plan for a new Industrial Strategy by aligning skills programmes with industry needs to nurture the right talent to meet future demands.
Executive Director Chris Burke commented:
“Our ECDP is totally focused on aligning the skills we’re developing to the talent that key industries need. because these early careers professionals are given the opportunity and responsibility to work on live projects from day one. They do that with the full support and guidance of experienced senior engineers who are fully committed to helping our ECDP colleagues be the best version of themselves and reach their full potential.
“We are consistently and continuously developing the engineering skills the UK needs across the full range of engineering disciplines, with cross-disciplinary competences where possible. With our ECDP, we’re taking positive and proactive steps to resolve the skills gap with ambitious, homegrown talent, and our annual ECDP conference is a celebration of that, as well as a call to arms to the current cohort to embrace the challenges and opportunities it offers.”
Morson Projects Executive Director Chris Burke
To date, more than 125 engineers have progressed their career through Morson’s Early Careers Development Programme, which involves completing a competency framework based on engineering disciplines and workplace skills to ensure they have all the skills needed to successfully lead projects and deliver against client requirements. There is no set period for completing the programme and early careers engineers can opt to tackle each module in their own preferred sequence and timeframe, enabling each individual to work in a way that suits them. Chris continues:
“Engineering is a broad church, and our goal is to attract the best talent and encourage each individual to map their own path to career success and achievement. We’ve crafted our ECDP to support each engineer every step of the way, with trained mentors and collaborative project teams, but this is their programme and their career; it’s up to them to make it their own.”
The evidence suggests that Morson’s ECDP engineers are doing exactly that. The programme has been running for 4 years with 95 engineers currently developing their careers with the support of the ECDP. It has helped Morson’s engineering businesses to achieve an incredibly low 5 per cent staff turnover rate and engineers currently involved in the programme or who have completed it are currently involved in projects as diverse as the new Tempest Aircraft and Network Rail’s UK-wide Asset Management programme.
“The conference is just one of the ways in which we’re bringing early careers engineers together to enable them to connect and see the bigger picture,” Chris adds. “We all know that the UK needs more engineers, but we also need people who can lead in their field, manage projects and take bold decisions. Our ECDP and the conference we held for the current cohort are an invitation to be part of a transformative approach to building on the UK’s engineering legacy and leading its future.”
Our purpose is to positively impact lives every day, and every member of the Morson Group is driven to fuel innovation, empower industry and enable opportunities for people.Read our Morson Group STEM Foundation Impact Report here
Morson Group has recorded another record year as Group revenue jumped from £1,151.7m in 2022 to £1,332.9m in 2023, underscoring Morson’s ability to scale its operations efficiently while maintaining high levels of service and client satisfaction.
The Group also reported an adjusted EBITDA of £53 million, a noteworthy increase from £45.1 million in 2022, and increased its contractor numbers by 1,000. It has also been a year of recognitions for the Group, which was awarded seven prestigious awards, including the APSCo Outsource Talent Partner of the Year (APSCo Awards for Excellence) and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award (Ministry of Defence Employer Recognition Scheme), a distinction Morson has held since 2017. Morson also received a 3* Accreditation – the highest standard of workplace engagement – from Best Companies in their list of World Class Employers.
Morson’s success was propelled by buoyant, investment-centric core sectors such as rail, defence, energy and power, with particularly strong performances from several of its businesses, including the Morson Engineering Group (comprising design consultancy Morson Projects and Waldeck), Morson Talent and Vital Human Resources.
Morson Group CEO Ged Mason commented:
“Our unwavering focus has been to listen to our customers, adapting and innovating to provide tailored and relevant people solutions and services, pushing technological advances and drawing from a rich tapestry of knowledge and expertise within the companies under our wing. With another year of strong growth, it’s clear that this approach is paying off. Beyond the financial performance, driven by our people, colleagues, and client partners – our most valuable assets – I am incredibly proud of our family team ethos across the Group.
Their contributions are essential, and without their dedication and alignment with our core values, we wouldn’t be able to achieve this success. I’m also thrilled with our environmental, social, and governance efforts, particularly initiatives that promote social mobility and create opportunities for disadvantaged or overlooked talent to thrive.
Our partnerships with organisations like IntoUniversity and The University of Salford highlight the powerful impact of industry-academic collaboration in nurturing future talent.”
Morson Group CEO Ged Mason
Morson Group CFO Paul Gilmour added:
“With our breadth of highly valued services in demand from our clients, valued contributions have been made across the Group and we have again achieved record results for the year 2023. Thanks are due to all involved, including our support and systems teams’ efficiency and dedication. Our ethos, characterised by a strong sense of family and community, is evident in every corner of the Group, and I take immense pride in witnessing our collective strength grow with the passing of each year.”
CFO Paul Gilmour
Our purpose is to positively impact lives every day, and every member of the Morson Group is driven to fuel innovation, empower industry and enable opportunities for people.Read our Morson Group STEM Foundation Impact Report here
Our purpose is to positively impact lives every day, and every member of the Morson Group is driven to fuel innovation, empower industry and enable opportunities for people.
The UK’s ongoing STEM skills shortage has been estimated to cost the UK economy £1.5billion per year. It is a problem that can be alleviated by increasing the provision of opportunities for young people, regardless of their background. The initiatives we have supported as part of the Morson STEM Foundation in association with the University of Salford, have been centered on the dual challenges of developing a robust skills pipeline to future-proof STEM industries and opening up educational and career opportunities to underrepresented or disadvantaged members of our society.
From our Gerry Mason Scholarships, which have helped undergraduates since 2015, to our recent partnership with Primary Engineer to engage primary school age children into STEM, our Foundation aims to make a difference across multiple touchpoints and age groups.
Our inaugural Impact Report documents the results of these partnerships and measures the tangible differences we are making in our commitment to STEM futures.
Students from the University of Salford’s Salford Racing team celebrated an amazing achievement at the annual Formula Student event, ranking P8 in the world in the prestigious student engineering competition.
Taking place each year at the home of British racing, Silverstone, the IMechE Formula Student event is a student engineering challenge aimed at developing the next generation of world-class engineers. Students design and build a race car from scratch, and then put their engineering and business skills through a series of challenges, including chassis, noise, brake tests and more.
Morson sponsors the team as part of our STEM Foundation programme, which aims to increase the talent pipeline for STEM by widening participation and creating pathways into education and training.
In 2024, the Salford Racing team not only passed all scrutineering challenges for the first time ever, they also managed to make the endurance race, a 22km test of the cars’ reliability and overall pace. The final stage was completed by the two drivers, earning the team an amazing 8th place finish overall, soundingly beating all of the other North West-based universities, including the University of Central Lancashire, the University of Manchester and the University of Bolton.
This is by far the best result the team has ever achieved (P46 in 2023, P31 in 2022, P58 in 2019). During the 2023 event the team were unable to get past the noise test, as a problem with the engine upon arrival at the track had led to a frantic rebuild, which sadly led to time running out. But there would be no such issues this year, as the team completed the build 48 hours ahead of their 2023 time.
Ollie Parsons, an aeronautical engineering graduate who took on the role of Team Principal for the end of the 2021 season through 2022, talks about the important skills required to make the project work:
Rigorous build and testing
TThe car consists of a single cylinder engine and a space-frame chassis made up of steel tubes. The students buy long 6m lengths of tube steel, which they laser cut, and weld together into the design that they have come up with. Once assembled at the event, the car faces a series of scrutineering challenges to judge the car overall. Design judging asks students to explain the design engineering decisions behind the car they have built. Cost and manufacturing assesses their understanding of the real-world implications of building a design, including how much will it cost to make components at scale, and how the manufacturing processes affect that.
In the business presentation the team pitch a fictitious business plan to a series of judges in a Dragon’s Den style format, asking for investment in the continued growth of their company.
Before the engine can be started and the car moved under its own power the team must prove to motorsport safety experts and IMechE scrutineering volunteers that it is safe. Technical scrutineering (“Tech”) involves passing a rigorous checklist, ensuring that the car complies with both the 190-page Formula Student rule book and adheres to general good engineering design practices. Safety involves includes checking the drivers can escape from the car within 5 seconds, starting from a fully strapped in position and ending with both feet on the ground and not touching the car, and ensuring that protective safety equipment is in date and undamaged.
Chassis checks the structure of the car matches the detailed chassis design that was submitted for review by design judges. This is important to check that the car will be strong enough to keep the driver safe in the event of a crash.
Tilt tips the car over at 45 degrees and then 60 degrees to check the centre of gravity is low enough for safe operation, and that the car won’t be leaking fluids like oil, coolant, or petrol all over the track. Noise checks the car is underneath the maximum noise level at a particular engine speed/RPM. The RPM is calculated to achieve a certain linear piston speed. Brake checks the car’s brakes can stop the car quickly and effectively.
Upon completing the scrutineering challenges, the car is then put through it’s paces on a custom track on Copse corner on the Silverstone track on Sunday. The endurance race is designed to test the cars reliability and overall pace, with 25 laps of the circuit needing to be completed in order to attain a final ranking in the competition.
As they’d never before passed all the required stages of scrutineering, the Salford Racing team had never been on the track before. The two drivers completed the endurance race in good time, and finished the event ranked in the top 10 globally.
Dr Maria Stukoff, Director of the Morson Maker Space at the University of Salford, commented:
“I’m just proud as punch of the team for making the track for the first time ever. Last year’s team had real battles on their hands, having to work through the night to even get through to scrutineering but ran out of time. But the 2023 team, some of whom form part of the 2024 cohort, was able to pass on their experience nad learning onto this years team, which really showcases how successful it is when students have that longevity to pass on what they learn to the next generation.
I see students come into first year and join Saldord Racing and go all the way through to graduate, there’s so much personal learning that goes on. Not only have they learned teamwork and negotiation skills, but the tenacity and that sense of resilience for when things don’t go right. They grow with all of those ‘smart skills’.”
Click here to find out more about how we’re collaborating with businesses to understand their skills needs and aligning them with a strategy for creating career opportunities developing skills, delivering social value, and enabling brighter futures.
Karting champion Daniella Sutton may only be 15, but she’s setting her sights on something huge.
Since her first experience in a kart at TeamSport Trafford Park at the age of 6, Sutton has enjoyed an enviable rise in racing. 2023 saw her winning numerous trophies, with one of the highlights being her fourth-place finish in the prestigious Daniel Ricciardo series. What started as a hobby has quickly turned into a potential career path, with an exciting chapter opening up as she switches from karts to cars for the first time, competing in the Fiesta Junior Championships.
For International Women’s Day, Daniella spoke to us about how her passion for motorsport has developed over the years and how her sights are firmly set on becoming the UK’s first female Formula 1 driver.
What was your first karting experience?
My dad took me for my sixth birthday to TeamSport Trafford, which was originally Daytona. At first, I actually didn’t want to put the suit on. I cried because I didn’t like the feel of the suit and didn’t want to put the suit on, but as soon as I got that helmet on and got in the car, I loved it!
Daniella Sutton on the podium
How did karting change from a hobby to a potential career path?
It was more of a hobby and not a very regular thing up until I was about ten and then we started going more regularly to indoor kart tracks. When I was eleven we were like, ‘Well, why do we take it further?’ Someone suggested the Daniel Ricciardo series and to race in that I had to get my Motorsport UK license for karting. Once I acquired my Motorsport UK license for karting, we took it very serious from then on, realizing that I wanted it as my career path.
I competed at Shenington for my first ever race and it was just amazing. Even though I was towards the back of the grid, it was like, wow, I’m racing with such amazing drivers and inspirational drivers as well, such as Alisha Palmowski. Alisha is one of my good friends now, she raced in the Ginetta Juniors last year and is looking to take her career further within motorsport.
How easy is balancing racing with school?
Alongside racing, my academia is very important because obviously the main goal is to become a racing driver, but you always have to have something to fall back on. I try and catch up with school as much as possible and sometimes it is tough, but my teachers help me a lot and the school support me with my racing. I think the hardest thing is when I’ve been sick
What is your planned route to reach F1?
We know that there are lot of women-driven ambitions these days to get women into the sport, such as the F1 Academy. We’re competing in the Fiesta Junior Championship this year, so we’d be looking then further along the line at trying to get scouted for the F1 Academy if possible, because if a rally driver has done it, it doesn’t mean a tin tops driver can’t as well.
How difficult is it to battle through illness when racing?
I have Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis as well. So, I’ve had a lot of time out of school because of that. But then I manage to catch up in school, which is the main thing. Then also fitness comes into play as well, to be a high-performing athlete, you need to work on your fitness because of the G-forces endured during the racing. If you are physically fit, you’ll be mentally fit as well to be able to tackle any tasks at hand on track. I often find that the adrenaline helps, so the adrenaline of the racing, takes the pain away if I do have any pain. My arthritis is manageable at the moment with Immunosuppressant medication called Adalimumab and so that helps my body to stop fighting itself essentially. I don’t really get that much joint pain, but if I do, then we manage it with Naproxen, which is an anti-inflammatory.
Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
I want to see myself racing at the highest echelons of Motorsport that I physically can but to do that, I’ll need backing from sponsors such as yourself and other people who are willing to support me on this journey.”
We look forward to continue to follow Daniella’s incredible journey in the season ahead and all of Morson will be cheering her on.
