Boosting ambition and belief is vital - Dr Tony Trapp

Nov 28 2008 The Journal

Dr Tony Trapp says it is vital that we boost the ambition and belief of young people so that they can strive to achieve their all

THE North East has had to fight hard to develop more rapidly than other regions in the UK, that are traditionally more prosperous. This is particularly true against the current background of such economic uncertainty.

The region has some outstanding successes in many fields of business, engineering, education and health. It attracts excellent students to study at its colleges and universities. It is crucial that we attract and retain top talent that will enable us to meet the new challenges that we now face.

The main requirement is to foster the development of new home-grown entrepreneurial businesses. These will provide the basis for genuine growth and prosperity – and develop more genuine jobs that have real dignity.

This region has a real need for the injection of more finance, but it is clear that the climate for obtaining additional funding from the taxpayer is severely limited. We have to break out of our habit of always asking the government for more funding for everything that we want.

There is a great deal of money that can be made available to us – and it is currently in the hands of our customers. These customers exist in many parts of the world. We must have a rapid expansion of new businesses based on new ideas and new technology and fully exploit the physical and intellectual resources of the region.

At IHC Engineering Business (EB) we nurture and develop new talent on quite a big scale. We take on a lot of students for placements during the summer, or for longer periods of up to 14 months. These are usually people who are studying locally, or have a home base in the region. We are able to offer a wide range of experience for enthusiastic and able students. Many of these people return to join EB when they graduate.

One of the real pleasures in my job is watching the rapid progress of new staff, when they are given a stimulating and challenging environment in which to develop. A sad reality in life is that many people never find themselves in a situation where they can truly achieve their full potential.

And this is a tragedy. I firmly believe that in this region particularly, we need to boost the ambition, belief and courage of our working population so that individuals really want to improve their position in society.

At EB we are fortunate to be able to work on some really exciting engineering projects that result in some spectacular machines and we try to stimulate people to achieve their best.

EB has a young workforce of professional engineers, with about 40% being less than 30 years old. However the opportunity to grow and flourish is not confined to our younger staff members. More mature people also benefit hugely when they have the freedom and opportunity to demonstrate their true potential.

I congratulate The Journal on helping to identify and boost those individuals who can further invigorate and lead this region to greater success. We depend on these people to provide the energy, vision, determination and entrepreneurial flair to carry their organisations to success – to the benefit of us all.

Dr Tony Trapp is managing director of the IHC Engineering Business Ltd and David Goldman Visiting Professor of Business Innovation at Newcastle University Business School