NEWS RELEASE

Issued: Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Our reference: ADS PR 2012 008

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00.01 THURSDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2012

OPENING DOORS AND TAKING OFF: AEROSPACE & DEFENCE HIGHLIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES TO YOUNG PEOPLE

Aerospace industry to play active role in BIS’ See Inside Manufacturing initiative

ADS today (Thursday) welcomed the Department for Business Innovation and Skills initiative See Inside Manufacturing. The See Inside Manufacturing initiative gives Aerospace & Defence a new opportunity on a national level to engage with the local community – including schools, colleges and universities – as they inspire future generations of engineers.

See Inside Manufacturing has been met with great enthusiasm and interest from the UK Aerospace and Defence sector and has willing participants from across the industry including: AgustaWestland, Airbus, BAE Systems, Bombardier, GE, GKN, Roll-Royce and Thales.

Rees Ward, CEO at ADS, said:

“See Inside Manufacturing gives a sense of national cohesion to the series of local outreach programmes run by the UK Aerospace and Defence industries, and is a great way to demonstrate the opportunities in these sectors to young people considering future career options. Opening our doors allows the UK’s young people to meet the apprentices and workforce in action producing the vital equipment which allows our Armed Forces to do the job asked of them, and the modern commercial aircraft which are cutting emissions and making flying sustainable environmentally. There can be few better opportunities than See Inside Manufacturing to show our engineers of tomorrow what it is like to work in exciting, growth sectors, at the cutting edge of engineering excellence, which make a real difference to the UK’s economy and security.”

Additional stats on Aerospace and Defence:

Aerospace

- Supports over 360,000 jobs
- Worth £23bn to theUKeconomy
- Exported £16bn to the global market, placing UK Aerospace second in the world

Defence

- Supports over 314,000 jobs
- Worth £22.1bn to theUKeconomy
- Exported £9.5bn to the global market, placing UK Defence second in the world

Taken from ADS Aerospace and Defence surveys for 2010. Surveys for 2011 to be published later in 2012.

ENDS