Seeing the Vauxhall Vivaro in a new light

Earlier this term, Sixth Formers from Business Studies and some budding Engineers visited the Vauxhall plant at Luton for their See Inside Manufacturing event.  We had a tour of the Cutting section, where the pieces are cut from rolls of sheet metal, the Body Shop where the pieces are assembled to make the vehicles (amazingly clever robots), and General Assembly, where the vehicles (chassis, base, engine and all else) come together so the finished Vivaro vehicles roll off the production line: 198 finished vans per day.   In between the tours, students took part in activities which made them more aware of skills needed by the people who work in this fascinating environment.  Students commented:  “Lots of advanced technology”; “I was impressed how the vans change shape throughout each section”; “Interesting how all the robots work together and in sync to get the job done”; “it takes 8 hours to go from a shell to driving out of the factory”;  “really impressive attention to detail in terms of quality control”;  “everyone seems to work hard and be committed to their job, they all work together even in this big factory”.

Two weeks later, the Vauxhall team headed by Jenny Lokko (who is on a placement year at Vauxhall from her uni) came to Cavendish, in a Vivaro of course!  In assembly, they awarded a prize to Chris Elliott for his winning entry in one of the competitions on our visit.  Vauxhall have some great employment opportunities for new apprentices, undergraduate placements, and graduate traineeships.  We hope to visit them again next year!   Pictures of our visit are here