No sooner had the calendar been flipped onto a new year, than we were celebrating new achievements across our business. At the Make UK Manufacturing Award national finals, two of our colleagues took home top prizes. Sophie Harrison, a Production Material Support Planner who had recently completed her apprenticeship at our Yeovil site, was named winner of the Business Apprentice Final Year award. At the same time, Kayley Manns, a final year craft mechanical apprentice also based at the Home of British Helicopters, won the Engineering Apprentice Rising Star award. Both had made it through to the national finals having won their categories at the regional finals (South West) at the end of 2022.
Then, for the third year in a row, it was announced that Leonardo had been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. This market capitalisation-weighted index assesses the performance of listed companies in reporting gender-related data. The 2023 assessment comprised 484 companies operating in 45 countries and 11 different sectors.
At the end of the month, Leonardo’s STEM ambassadors in Yeovil organised a ‘Bright Sparks’ event to help teach 12-13 year old school pupils the principles of flight and open their eyes to the world of engineering. Hosted at the Army Flying Museum, the two-day event saw over 130 young people engage with our interactive exhibits.
January also marked a new beginning for Leonardo UK at a board level, as Clive Higgins assumed the role as our new Chair and CEO. Having originally joined the company as an apprentice at our Yeovil site, Clive worked in a number of senior roles across the business before becoming a member of Leonardo’s UK leadership team.