09/03/2015 – M-TEC Engineering Projects: Merging TEChnology with Innovation

M-TEC Engineering Projects was founded in 2010 by Keith McKenna and Stephen Hanson as a natural development of the recruitment activity of well-established sister company M-TEC Recruitment.

They formulated a strategy to set up a separate business entity in Coventry to manage concept development through to product realisation, specifically in the automotive sector. The company has experienced steady growth to the point where they now boast a team of a 75 strong dedicated programme delivery team.

Support administration, HR and finance services are provided by M-TEC recruitment from their Birmingham based office, enabling M-TEC Engineering Projects to focus solely on programme delivery.

The initial strategy was to establish and develop a foothold primarily within the high end automotive sector. The drive being to establish a ‘recession proof’ business model following the economic down turn of 2008.

Stephen Hanson – Engineering & Programme Director, told us, “We felt once this foothold was established, we would be positioned to take advantage of the increasing demand for our services more broadly across the sector, as the market became more buoyant. This strategy has been borne out, as the UK is currently experiencing the highest vehicle sales and levels of vehicle production seen since the recession.”

“Our focus to date has been with the high end UK OEMs and their associated supplier base. Our growth has been facilitated though the success of UK OEMs such as Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin and other niche lower volume UK based OEMs.

“We would also like to extend the support we currently provide to overseas automotive suppliers as they develop their business with UK OEMs, offering them UK based Programme, Engineering and Design support to enable them to develop a closer relationship with their UK clients”.

He said that, initially, one of their greatest challenges was convincing often quite high profile and experienced clients to relinquish full programme responsibility. However, once M-TEC demonstrated the manner in which they deliver programmes, this challenge has diminished and all their current clients have or are relinquishing greater levels of responsibility, allowing their own businesses to develop and grow in a controlled manner.

Stephen is thrilled to be working with some of the high profile clients that they support. He said “We are not in a position to name all of them due to the confidentiality agreements we have in place, but it is a testament to our strategy and our team that we have been able to position ourselves with such clients in what is a relatively short period of time”.

2015 will see them continue to strengthen the development of their UK team  at their Coventry offices, by employing traditional recruitment strategies, led by sister company M-TEC recruitment, along with the development of the next generation of programme managers, engineers and designers from within.

Stephen is very proud of the company’s record on staff development and training. He said, “We employ three current strategies, work experience placement schemes, a graduate development programme and the sponsorship of students from the Black Country University Technical College (UTC).

“The relationship with the UTC came about through a personal relationship stemming from an introduction to a UTC student who we felt had a flair for engineering and design. We sponsored him through his university studies and after four years he is now an integral part of our team and working on a project for one of our most high-profile automotive clients.”

The relationship with the UTC continues, through the identification of high potential students, with two or three of the best taken on each year. They have found that developing students via the UTC route, and providing on the job training along-side their University studies, can in many ways better prepare individuals for industry when compared to graduates direct from University.

In addition to the development of UTC students, they employ graduates direct from University and install them on a 12 month development programme working alongside their established project teams, which works very well in terms of providing an intensive learning environment.

An excellent relationship has also developed with Coventry University both in terms of provided 12 month industrial placements for students and working with them to support the recruitment into our Graduate development programme.

M-TEC, recognising some of the reasons behind the skills gap has developed a more formal structure to their school work experience schemes, working in partnership with Industrial Cadets. The inspiration for Industrial Cadets came from HRH The Prince of Wales and the initiative is supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government. M-TEC is the first SME to be accredited to deliver a Gold Award programme.

M-TEC feels a responsibility to educate younger people with regard to the opportunities within the sector, whether engineering and design related, or within the automotive sector more widely. If all businesses encourage such activity we will start to attract the next generation of engineers to ensure the UK continues to develop over the longer term.

M-TEC  also feel that there are far too few women moving into engineering generally, and hope that through their people development strategies they can play a part in addressing this by promoting engineering as a career path to young women through Industrial Cadets and their work placement programmes.

Stephen said “We are very proud of our talent development programmes and feel that we are leading the way in terms of the development of our young people. We also feel that we provide more than just an Engineering Programme delivery service.

“In many ways we are able to provide a consultative role to our clients. As we have a wide range of experience within the team across a number of tier one suppliers and OEMs, we can support our clients in adopting best practice and in their development as their organisations also evolve.”

Their focus for 2015 is to continue to secure long term stable relationships with key clients, resulting from the successful delivery of programmes and by maintaining high levels of service. This will enable M-TEC to continue to develop the partnerships they currently have in place with their clients, becoming an integral part of their businesses and able to support them in achieving their growth strategies – while effectively achieving their own.

For more information please visit the web site www.mtec-ep.com or telephone on 02476 214541

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