School Academy

What it is
Manchester Enterprise Academy (MEA), just one mile from Manchester Airport, is our local secondary school. Together with Willow Park Housing Trust and City College Manchester, we are proud to sponsor the new Academy, where our specialist knowledge of business, travel and tourism will help enrich the curriculum over the years ahead.

With the help of our Managing Director and people at every level of our business, we are actively involved in the project; managing the design of the new school building, recruiting staff and offering support to the development of the Academy and its curriculum.
Our HR Director Julie Armstrong is a Governor of the school and has been involved in planning the new Academy. In addition, a senior member of our team has been seconded three days a week to the project.

Benefits - to our community

Cheshire show
On 23/24 June 2009 the Community Relations Team, along with Airport Fire fighters with a fire appliance attended our sixth Cheshire Show. Colleagues from the Airport Job Centre Plus joined us to promote vacancies on site.

A group of MEA children designed the main activity through a Year 7 enterprise competition. A total of 55 pupils took part in a series of competition rounds; with three projects being short-listed and put to the Airport management panel. The winning entry was an international football puppet activity that could be coloured in to show internation football shirts, representing the countries that can be flown to from Manchester Airport. Children from the winning team attended the show to help run the activity.

Launch Day
On the 2nd October 2009 the whole school took part in an airport sponsored art activity morning. Fifty volunteers from 6 different companies went into school to work with more than 500 pupils. The theme was the environment, flora and fauna that you would expect to see around the Airport site.

• Years 7 and 8 decorated paper mache keepsake boxes.
• Year 9 and 10 decorated and designed T shirts
• Year 11 – went on a trip to the Airport environs to take photographs

Each aspect was competitive, the judge was Andrew Vaughan from the Whitworth Art Gallery, here is a picture of the winning entries from each class.

Job Shadow - March 2009 – annually
Seventy Nine year 10 students from MEA took part in a 2 hour job shadow/work experience session at Manchester Airport. Thirty three employees, from companies across the site, hosted the students,. Hosts included airline partners, government agencies, contractors and 10 lucky students even went to the Emirates call centre in Wilmslow.

The event had been organized by a team of 4 Year 10 students who had been working with Community Relations for 7 one day sessions.

It is vital that these young people have opportunities to visit business and industry; to meet positive role models, to help raise their aspirations and encourage improved educational attainment. Only with the help of many of our colleagues is this possible.

Highlights from the students included for some, their first ever trip on board an aircraft in the Thomas Cook engineering hangar, as well as having the chance to meet some “lovely staff” and have a “brill time”.

Feedback from the hosts was positive with all committing to doing it again next year, comments included:;

"the students we were allocated were great ambassadors for the school"

"it was a pleasure to have Emma and Katie here for the morning. They were well behaved and showed an interest. They are a credit to the school and themselves"

"very pleasant young man"

Work Experience
Five students were offered the opportunity to carry out their weeks work experience at the Airport, in;

• Manchester Airport Developments
• Administration and Finance Team
• Commercial Team
• Planning Department and at the Emirates Call Centre in Wilmslow

All the students benefited from being in a work place environment, learning how to conduct themselves in a professional manner, and how to operate office equipment.
Performance reviews were carried out at the end of their placements, so students could receive feedback on how they had done.

MEA Kick Start
MEA students kick start their careers with the help of Airport Business associates. Year 10 pupils from MEA found out about the range of skills required to access employment as part of the BW3, Businesses Working with Wythenshawe, Job Search Skills programme.

BW3 is a group of local employers who are working together to support the social and economic regeneration of Wythenshawe. The group includes such organisations as Manchester Airport, Shell, Microsoft, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester City Council, Armstrong Craven, and Parkway Green and Willow Park Housing Associations.

In prestigious surroundings at the City of Manchester Stadium students were able to meet local employers and participate in a series of workshops aimed at raising awareness of what employers look for when they are recruiting new staff.

Business experts provided practical advice on a range of subjects including how to identify and apply for a job, CV’s and personal presentation. Volunteers from the Airport included, Ian Thompson, John Twigg, John Bedson, Paul Russell, Mark Bradley, Chris Paling and Jessica Stainze.

Lee Eastwood from Parklands said. “This has been a magnificent event for our students and will provide a platform on which they will be able to build as they start to consider their career choices. We certainly value the time and commitment provided by local employers in helping to provide our young people with skills that will be vital to them in the future.”

BW3 Chair and Manchester Airport Community Relations Manager, Wendy Sinfield, added. “ The Job Search Skills programme allows us to provide practical advice and guidance to young people in our community. We hope today’s event will support students in their development and will have helped to raise awareness of local employment opportunities.”

Dragons Den
Students from MEA, Manchester Health Academy, St Paul’s and Newall Green entered the dragon’s lair at Manchester Airport recently aiming to show the judges the right business attitude that would gain them investment into their project in time for Christmas.

The groups were at Manchester Airport on 4th December selling their items to passengers as part of the project before the winner is declared on the 14th December, when the students see the Dragons again with their balance sheets in tow.

The dragon’s who are presiding over them include Phil Shilson from airport retailer WDF, Gary Palmer from Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Christena Meynell from Singapore Airways and Julia Rodgers from Greater Manchester Police.

Each group from the four schools put forward their best idea and were bidding for £100 investment. They were given a brief of producing an item that could be sold for a maximum of £5 as a Christmas item for the family.

MEA was judged the ultimate winner, with a profit of £369.85 once they had repaid the Dragons investment. The winning students, Talia Plant, Emma Flynn and Samantha Chappelle from MEA will enjoy a limousine trip into Manchester for a show and a meal.

Hallé Orchestra – Adopt a Player
In the autumn of 2009 we have worked with the Hallé Orchestra and the Bridgewater Hall on the ‘Adopt a player’ programme. The initiative included 120 students from the MEA and children from three of its’ feeder Primary Schools;

• The Willows
• Haveley Hey
• Peel Hall.

Musicians held interactive lessons in the schools demonstrating instruments and giving hands on opportunities as well as helping to understand the story of the music. The highlight for many was to attend a concert at the Bridgewater Hall, to be welcomed by the players, introduced to the audience and enjoy the music. Further sessions after the concert the players culminate in a performance based on the music for friends and family at the MEA.

For schools in addition to the learning associated with the music this project is a wonderful transition tool for children and parents as well as a showcase for the talent of all of the performers.

Management Development
To develop management skills and promote the long-term success of the Academy, teachers from MEA have attended Manchester Airport’s Management Development training courses and received presentations from senior airport management. Special arrangements have been made to run the courses in evenings and weekends without interrupting teaching time.