24.01.07
UCP graduate placement a success at WES

Local business management graduate James Gazzard, from Frogpool, is the latest success story to emerge from the Combined Universities in Cornwall’s Unlocking Cornish Potential (UCP) graduate placement scheme, after being offered a permanent position as Marketing Co-ordinator by Redruth based WES Engineering Solutions.

WES, one of the major suppliers of resistance welding equipment to the motor industry - with clients including Honda, BOC, Nissan, Jaguar, Land Rover and Vauxhall - also offer Hardmetal Engineering and Advanced Engineering capabilities. The company approached the UCP team looking for a graduate to take on a 12 month project researching and developing a complete marketing function to support the company’s future plans for expansion.

Having graduated from the University of Wales with an admirable first class degree in Business Management, James was keen to use his skills and knowledge to find employment in his home county of Cornwall. The UCP team matched his expertise to the needs that WES had indicated and arranged a twelve month placement for James, as Marketing Strategist in January 2006.

The UCP scheme, which is part of the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) initiative, supported by Objective One, aims to assist small businesses in Cornwall by placing graduates within companies to undertake specific business development projects. This also provides the graduates with real life working experience and has achieved an impressive graduate employment rate of over 70% at the end of the placements to date.

The project at WES involved in-depth market research and a complete re-branding of the company’s activities and provided James with working experience of project management, IT systems, customer and personnel relations as well as strategic decision making.

James explains how the scheme has benefited him, “The UCP project has provided an outstanding opportunity to perform a role that is in line with both my degree course and my career aspirations. It has been a fascinating year which I have thoroughly enjoyed and will no doubt look back on as a key stage in my professional development. I am delighted that the successful completion of the project objectives resulted in the offer of a full time, permanent position with WES, which I have gratefully accepted.”

Managing Director of WES, Andrew Hosking, is a keen exponent of the scheme, commenting, “This is the third time that we’ve used the UCP scheme to find high calibre graduates to perform specific projects within the company. We now have a dedicated marketing function which will play a valuable role in the future development of the company, and will compliment our comprehensive investment and expansion programme.”

The Unlocking Cornish Potential team is based at Cornwall College Camborne with Cornwall College Business and can be contacted on (01209) 617664 or by email ucp@cornwall.ac.uk. More information on www.unlockingcornishpotential.co.uk.

For more information contact Emma Stallard of the Combined Universities in Cornwall on 01326 370446 or email emma.stallard@cuc.ac.uk.

The Objective One Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has invested in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) project, both Phase 1 and Phase 2, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF). The Programme has also invested in Unlocking Cornish Potential through the European Social Fund (ESF).

Editor's notes:

The Combined Universities in Cornwall is a dynamic and visionary partnership that is one of the driving forces behind Cornwall’s economic renaissance. This partnership combines the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, University College Falmouth, The Open University, The College of St Mark & St John, and the Peninsula Medical School, with Cornwall’s Further Education colleges - Cornwall College, Truro College and Penwith College. It aims not only to provide the students of the future with more choice and greater opportunities, but also to boost the economic fortunes of the region for the benefit of one and all.

The CUC initiative has been invested in by the Objective One Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, the South West Regional Development Agency, Cornwall County Council and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Clare Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Mobile: 07973 813647
Telephone: 01872 223439

cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk

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