Here at King James, we work hard to strengthen our contacts with local engineering companies to help promote interest in engineering as a career and to increase opportunities for our students.

As part of our strategy, we have established strong links with NELEP (North East Local Enterprise Partnership), which was established by the government to plan medium term economic objectives for the North East and identify interventions and investments to support economic growth, improve productivity and to increase the number of those employed, particularly in higher quality jobs.

NELEP helps to establish links between schools and local businesses and our NELEP Enterprise Coordinator, Lindsey Joy linked us with engineering ambassadors Arlington Automotive, which is based in Newton Aycliffe. Arlington makes parts for the car industry and has strong links with Nissan.

With the help of Steve Dale, General Manager of Arlington Automotive we established a project called "Follow the Metal', which saw a group of King James students who are interested in engineering, visit the Arlington factory to see the development of car components for Nissan being manufactured. Steve then arranged for our students to tour the Nissan factory where they could see Arlington's components being incorporated into cars.

This project caused great interest in school and highlighted the opportunities in engineering both locally and nationally. As part of our summer "Careers Clinics' a group of apprentices from Arlington are coming into school to talk to students about their own apprenticeship pathways and the opportunities which are available to young people.

Arlington has also helped several Sixth Form students complete their courses by giving them the opportunity to have work experience with the company.