As we head into the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, we take this time to look back at what happened during March for IPT Fellowships. March was slightly quieter than the first two months of the year, however some Parliamentarians continued to make progress on their IPT Fellowships.

On Monday 2 March, Baroness Blower continued her Fellowship on Opportunities for Young People in Culture and Creatives with a visit to Sadler’s Wells East in Stratford, where she toured the new venue and learned about its programmes. She was introduced to key initiatives including the community Dance Floor space, the Academy Breakin’ Convention hip hop qualification, artist development studios, and the 550‑seat auditorium. The visit also included discussions about Sadler’s Wells’ nationwide support for young dance makers. Sadler’s Wells is a world‑leading dance organisation, welcoming over half a million visitors each year across its four London venues and extensive touring and digital work.

Then on 6 March we saw Baggy Shanker MP continue to make good progress with his Fellowship focusing in on Manufacturing with a visit local to his constituency in Derby. He visited Pektron, a family-run electronics design and manufacturing company. They work mainly within the automotive industry and this visit illustrated to Baggy the operations at their site. Through a tour he got to see all aspects of this, speaking with senior figures and those working on the factory floor. This visit helped build on his knowledge of the manufacturing sector, gained through his career before entering parliament. We organised this visit through the Society of Motor Manufacturers (SMMT) as Pektron are one of their members.

Then, on Tuesday 10 March Gordon McKee MP continued his Fellowship in Technology with a visit to Adobe’s offices in London. Adobe is a global leader in digital creativity and marketing technologies, best known for products such as Photoshop and Acrobat. Gordon, an MP with a strong interest in emerging technologies and a background in computer science, met with Adobe’s team to deepen his understanding of the company’s innovation work and its role in the wider tech ecosystem.

Later that month on 19 March we saw two visits run simultaneously, first our Industry Visit to NATS, and Damien Egan MP’s visit to Leonardo in Yeovil. Our visit to NATS took Parliamentarians to their Swanwick Centre, where they handle some of busiest and most complex airspace in Europe. Attendees toured their operations room, speaking to air traffic controllers, understanding their work and roles. They visited the London City Digital Tower, housed at Swanwick, which is the first major international airport to have a fully digital remote control tower. Finally, they got to use the Part Task Trainer (PTT) simulators, where trainee air traffic controllers undertake their Level 5 Apprenticeship training. 

Damien visited Leonardo at their site in Yeovil, a helicopter manufacturing facility. Through a site tour Damien got to see their manufacturing operations in real time, and discuss the work they are doing with the Merlin and Wildcat models. They also talked about future plans and operations with the Proteus Programme to advance Rotary Wing Uncrewed Air Systems.

We would like to thank everyone involved on IPT Fellowships this month from the Parliamentarians to the businesses we worked with.