Britain needs to keep design and technology at the forefront of manufacturing and innovation if the country is to escape its economic woes, Conservative MPs Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid were told by a leading Midlands businessman.
Martyn Hale, a director of HME Technology, was showing them round his factory at Saxon Park in Bromsgrove following a string of order wins.
Mr Zahawi and Mr Javid, whose constituencies are Stratford-upon-Avon and Bromsgrove respectively, thanked him for making them aware of the issue.
Mr Hale’s comments came as the Coalition’s review of the national curriculum in schools continues, with only English, Maths, Science and Physical Education guaranteed to remain. Currently Design and Technology, Art and Design, Citizenship, Geography, History, Information and Communication Technology, Modern Foreign Languages and Music also have national curriculum status.
“It is absolutely vital to retain D&T as part of the national curriculum rather than allow it to become optional,” said Martyn Hale.
“We have a world leading design industry and it is critical we continue to re-build our economy by majoring on our strengths. If we are to remain competitive in a global economy, with many challengers, then we need to develop our future design capability.
“Dropping D&T from the national curriculum would be a big mistake – catastrophic. As the Prime Minister said in his recent speech to the Conservative Party Conference about the origins of Britain in Inventing-Creating-Exporting, without students experiencing D&T our future would be bleak.”
HME Technology was founded in 1984 and is the leading supplier and installer of design and technology and science equipment for schools.
Its range of products include forges, brazing hearths, furnaces, welding tables, fume extraction systems, kilns, woodworking equipment, wood dust extraction systems, metal finishing and CNC machines. It also supplies fume cupboards and ventilation systems for science departments.
However, another element of the Government’s education changes has brought a satchel-full of orders.
HME Technology is in particular benefiting from the expansion of the academy programme.
With academies enjoying greater autonomy and decision-making powers HME Technology’s ability to be flexible in shaping each project to individual school requirements is paying off, a major factor in its success.
Recent order wins have included a £299,000 flagship contract to supply and install design and technology equipment for Landau Forte Academy, Tamworth; working with Sangwin Educational Furniture and construction group Willmott Dixon on the Hope Academy scheme in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire; and a £40,000 contract to support a new Leicestershire education centre – Melton Vale Post 16 Centre at Melton Mowbray.
It also won a major contract in Abu Dhabi – a £230,000 order from ALDAR Properties on the new 1,300-pupil Al Bateen Secondary School, part of a massive on-going school construction programme.
The MPs congratulated Martyn Hale on the export success.
And in true innovative fashion the pair were treated to a silver service lunch in one of HME Technology’s workshops.
