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My name is Andrew Stevens I've recently retired as CEO of Cobham PLC
My early days started after school I went Dudley Technical College did an ordinary
National diploma
and from there i went to the direct replacement into Aston and did a
BSc in production Engineering
I think I always had
an aspiration or a desire to make things
and you know that the technology associated with Aerospace even today is so
rich and from it so much spins off
so me Aerospace has always been and I think will always be
the key driver in my life to the excitement of technology innovation
manufacturing, etc.
One of the things that impressed me at Aston is that it open my eyes
Iv'e always had an ambition and Iv'e strived through my life to have ambitions
My ambition on arrival was to be a draughtsman on forty pounds a week I quickly
realised when I was at Aston,
there was a much broader career opportunity provided I studied and did
the course appropriately
and that's what I will remember forever in terms of what he gave me I think the out
turn was a very much more
disciplined individual who had some
relative experience academically but also practically, but throughout my
career the one thing I have and being a ex apprentice myself
I'm very strong on talent and driving talent and encouraging talent
my observation is what comes out of Aston
is it has a very broad curriculum in terms of what he teaches it's not just
Engineering he does other very important things as well
but I see the talent of what comes out
and the attitude in the culture of that talent very employable and therefore
very user-friendly to industry which is at the end day is what
industry wants,It's wants good quality
talents to come in and helped drive those businesses.
I believe it will be an Engineers world in the future i think the the innovation
that the UK brings not just in UK passport holders the people who are
educated at that, I see very much as the core strength moving forward.
When you look at companies like Rolls-Royce, Dyson
where those engineering strengths
are very very visible not just to industry but to the end users as well and
I see many other opportunities like that being developed within the UK and
driven and and used around the world.
The quality of degree that comes out is viewed by employees very much so
and I would therefore suggest that working hard and bringing together a good
quality degree
is an excellent start in life but it is a start, it's not the end of the journey
the journey goes on for many many years beyond that so
with that academic
qualification,
with the practical approach, I would say what I see comes out of Aston is very
driven people,
people who want to succeed, people who want to work hard, and that's a great
mantra to walk into industry to be able to offer.