WMG has appointed Sue Parr as its Business Development Director to develop the Professional and Executive Programmes.

Sue, who joined WMG in December, brings a wealth of knowledge with her, after 12 years at the Open University where she was Director of Executive Education. It was there that she successfully created and developed a division responsible for delivering customised solutions for private and public sector organisations from SMEs to global businesses. She also developed an impressive portfolio of innovative online and blended programmes.

Prior to the Open University, Sue spent many years working with organisations in management learning and development, also coaching middle and senior managers in a range of organisations. Sue began her career in publishing, holding senior management and board roles in international companies. She later ran a small business creating e-learning courses, some of which were award winning, for organisations.

Six senior managers from the UK’s Midlands Assembly Network (MAN) are among the first to complete a new Innovation Business Leadership (IBL) postgraduate programme at WMG, University of Warwick designed to create new Midlands’s business leaders who can bring significant benefits to their businesses.

Jaguar Land Rover has launched its Academy, the first of its kind in the UK automotive sector, and WMG at the University of Warwick is a key partner in the new initiative. The new Academy will offer all Jaguar Land Rover workers the opportunity to take part in continuous development programmes to enhance their careers and provide the skills the company needs.

WMG was, last week, pleased to welcome to campus the first cohort of participants on the executive education programme from Inner Mongolia University (IMU) in China.

The group of 26 senior executive participants from IMU attended the Innovation and Leadership course which was led by Professor Sujit Banerji and delivered by Dr Jay Bal and Dr Xiao Ma. The executive training programme is a key result from a Memorandum of Understanding which was signed in 2012 by Professor Sujit Banerji, Executive Director of Postgraduate Programmes, and Professor XiaoChuan Guo, Dean of IMU.

The successful collaboration has been a result of International Partnership Fund (IPF) funding for development of partnerships between leading institutes around the world. WMG has established a relationship to foster collaboration with the School of Economics and Management at IMU, the leading university in the region.

 Jeremy Butler, Director of WMG's Professional and Executive Programmes, has been elected to the CBI West Midlands Council.

The CBI’s Regional Councils are the main consultative bodies in each of the twelve CBI regions. Councillors play a key role in making policy decisions on local issues, as well as providing input into national CBI policy.

The Councils are serviced and supported by the relevant CBI Directors as well as policy colleagues.

It has been announced, today, by the Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts that WMG’s Applied Engineering Programme will be one of the programmes benefiting from a £50m Catalyst Fund.

WMG, at the University of Warwick, has an established reputation of working with business and industry to deliver cutting-edge research, innovative products and services, and world class education programmes.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Chairman and Founder of WMG said “We welcome this announcement from HEFCE which will help us to continue to deliver an education programme that meets the needs of industry. It is vital that our engineers have the right skills and knowledge to be able to develop world-class products that keep the UK on the global stage.”

The new Applied Engineering Programme is aimed at advancing industry-relevant skills of graduate engineers and those working in advanced manufacturing. A novel learning environment will focus on Manufacturing Engineering or Product Development Engineering, which will be taken into the workplace including through higher apprenticeships. The programme, will focus initially on the automotive sector, with Jaguar Land Rover as an initial co-investor.

WMG took part in the EEF National Manufacturing Conference 2013 in London on the 5th March 2013.

The conference, which featured addresses and debates from an impressive line-up of politicians and manufacturing leaders, focused on the topic of 'The Route to Growth' and looked at the challenges faced by UK manufacturing both today and in the future.

Representatives were available across the full range of WMG's activities, including for our involvement in the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, our work with SMEs at the International Institute for Product and Service Innovation and our Professional and Executive Education Programmes.

Included in the line-up of speakers were Rt. Hon. Ed Balls (Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer), Rt Hon the Lord Heseltine, Jim O'Neill (Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Mgmt), Mark Adams (VP, Corporate Planning at Toyota Motors Europe) and Deirdre Fox (Director of Strategic Business Development at Tata Steel). The event was chaired by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, presenter of Channel 4 News.

Updates of the event can be viewed on Twitter #ukmfgconf

More information is available on: http://www.manufacturingconference.co.uk/ 

WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick has announced that it has entered an agreement with Jaguar Land Rover to teach up to 600 Jaguar Land Rover employees to degree level in product engineering and manufacturing engineering.

Up to 100 Jaguar Land Rover staff will take up their places as sponsored degree students in October to January this year (2013) and next, studying either product development engineering or manufacturing engineering degrees. From 2014, WMG will also support the degree provision for the higher apprenticeship programme. This means that there will be up to 600 students studying at various stages over the next 3 to 4 years.

This week, WMG was pleased to host a visit from Dean Professor Guo and a team from Inner Mongolia University (IMU), as a result of Strategic Partnership funding that has been awarded to WMG's Dr Jay Bal.

Professor Sujit Banerji, Dr Jay Bal and Dr Xiao Ma from WMG, along with Dean Professor Guo, from IMU, signed an outline collaboration agreement to provide IMU graduates with an annual executive training programme, as well as collaboration on Digital Economy research (with Professor Irene Ng and Jonnie Turpie).

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, today, welcomed a delegation from DRB-HICOM to WMG.

The delegation were here to discuss industry collaborations, with DRB-HICOM being the largest automotive manufacturer in Malaysia, they are keen to explore the potential for collaborative partnerships. Included in the delegation was Lt Jen Dato’ Wira Allatif bin Mohd Noor the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM).