The Tees Valley Engineering Partnership

By Malcolm Potter, Manager of the Tees Valley Engineering Partnership.

The Tees Valley has always been proud of its industrial heritage and historically has played a significant role in promoting the UK as a major industrial power. With more than 100 years of success to build on, the engineering sector continues to thrive in the region today.

This Tees Valley Engineering Partnership (TVEP) was established nearly five years ago, in an effort to preserve and enhance this success and help move the industry forward in the face of growing competition from abroad.

It is a partnership of Directors and Senior Managers from some of the region’s most high profile engineering organisations, which allows them to explore common concerns, pool their expertise and instigate new and practical initiatives to ensure the sector remains profitable and competitive.

Currently our work centres around four key initiatives, which have been prioritised as requiring action.  These are:

1. Marketing the collective capability of local companies through a single website, www.firstforengineering.co.uk.  This emphasises the partnerships and supply chain relationships that exist among companies within the Tees Valley and show the combined capabilities of member organisations.  The site also contains up to date information about the Partnership’s activities.
2. Establishing a New Technology Forum (NTF), which will help the industry to forge a closer link with the academic/technological community and increase industrial awareness of technological opportunities.
3. Researching and analysing the unique strengths and geographical position of the Tees Valley to recommend how best the engineering sector can support potential developments in energy and power generation.
4.  Increasing the collaboration between engineering companies and schools/FE/HE providers in order to improve the skills of existing employees and raise awareness of career opportunities and progression.

The Tees Valley region should undoubtedly be proud of its industrial heritage, but now more than ever before we must look to the future.  The history of engineering in the Tees Valley has many new chapters waiting to be written and the TVEP is positioning itself to help lead the way.

Each month a TVEP member will use this column to address the successes and challenges that are impacting upon the modern engineering industry and how they are being addressed.

We welcome the involvement of all companies in the area that are interested in contributing to the work of the Partnership, to help ensure the sustainability and continuing success of engineering in the Tees Valley.  For more information please contact me on 01740 627009 or fill out our contact form