Yeovil students gain hands-on engineering experience at MACH 2012

Students from Yeovil College have visited the UK's largest UK manufacturing showcase, the MACH 2012 Engineering Exhibition.

Several groups of Performing Engineering Operations students visited the exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham, including those completing Apprenticeships and Extended Diplomas in Engineering.

The event takes place every two years and showcases the UK manufacturing industry. This year's event attracted more than 20,000 visitors and exhibitors, such as XYZ Machine Tools, Sandvik Cutting Tools, EdgeCAM and SEMTA, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies.

Advanced Apprentice Sam Vickery (18) of Crewkerne, who works for Packham Engineering, Halstock, visited the exhibition with his class. Sam said: "It was a very good trip and it was amazing to see the latest technology and the scale of the machines used in industry.

"Some of the equipment we saw was larger versions of what we use at College, like CNC lathes and mills.

"The visit linked in really well with what we do in the workshops, it was just the technology was more advanced and the machines were much bigger!

"While at the exhibition I won a competition on the welding and fabrication stand. I completed a high tech version of a game where I had to move a loop along a wire without touching it and got the best time!

"I won a welding mask and am hoping my time isn't beaten before the end of the week because then I'll win another prize. It was definitely a good trip and I would recommend the exhibition."

The trip was organised by lecturer Paul Stone and the students were accompanied by staff members Matt Driver, Alex Manfield and Douglas Beazer, who is also a Yeovil College Governor.

Mr Beazer commented: "Exhibitions like this are a fantastic opportunity for our students to make contact with important developments in the industry, information which will inspire them while at College and stand them in good stead when they progress to work or Higher Education.

"The MACH exhibition in particular gives the students the opportunity to see the true high tech face of British Engineering and what direction the industry is taking in our modern competitive world."