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Do You Have The Heart Of A Lion ?
Air Products Crewe based employees do !
March 2003 — Imagine you have over sixty, 10
to 11 year old children in a single room and within a few
short hours you have to encourage them, in teams, to listen,
discuss, develop, design and present an idea or solution
to a challenge they have been set just that morning ? Well,
that's how Dave Lonsdale, UK marketing manager and Hugh
Ashworth Hydrogen business manager at Air Products, elected
to spend one day in the middle of March ! Through contacts
with the South Cheshire Chamber of Commerce and the local
Business Forum for Engineering, Dave and Hugh, along with
representatives from other Crewe-based businesses, agreed
to help out as facilitators at the Mini LionHeart and LionHeart
Challenge. The Challenge, aimed at children aged between
10-11 and 16-18 respectively, was the first of it's kind
to be held in England and was organised by AXIS, South Cheshire's
strategic partnership between employers, colleges, and local
councils to provide a comprehensive centre of excellence,
matching skills development and business needs. Dave Lonsdale
facilitated a team from Edleston Primary School, helping
them pit their creativity and business acumen against five
other schools. Hugh acted as one of several business experts,
providing marketing, business planning, finance, product
design and development advice to all the teams. In just
four short hours teams taking part in the Mini LionHeart
had to brainstorm and evaluate their ideas, allocate tasks
within the teams, conceptualise, design and create a physical
mock-up representing their product/idea; present a business
summary and finally present their product the judging panel.
"Before the teams got started a local army Sergeant
brought order to chaos with a team building & motivational
exercise" said Dave. "Although quite stressful
at times, it was so rewarding to see the children get through
the challenge - the quality and creativity of these young
minds has to be seen to be believed! I'd definitely give
up my time to support this event again."
"Businesses in and around Crewe employ in the region
of 4000 engineers," commented Hugh. "That's why
challenges such as this are so important. Hopefully youngsters
will be encouraged by these activitivies to think about
future careers in engineering and other related disciplines."
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Note to the Editor:
Air Products PLC is the UK subsidiary of Air
Products and Chemicals, Inc. (www.airproducts.com),
the world's only combined gases and chemicals company. Founded
more than 60 years ago, the business has annual revenues
of $6.3 billion and operations in 30 countries. Air Products
is a market leader in the global electronics and chemical
processing industries, and a longstanding innovator in many
industrial markets, including coatings, adhesives and polyurethanes.
The company distinguishes itself through its 17,400 employees
around the world, who build lasting relationships with their
customers and communities based on understanding, integrity
and passion.
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