Mark Hayward and Roy Taylor
Steel Profiler Malthouse Engineering has been nominated for a Best Partnership award as part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership Awards 2012.
During 2009 – 2011 Malthouse Engineering were involved in a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, a government funded graduate scheme that aims to get business and higher education working together. It works on the premise that Universities contain information that would be useful for Small to Medium sized Enterprises. Traditionally this knowledge has been difficult to access so the KTP program bridges the gap and allows the information to flow. To support the transfer of knowledge a graduate is employed to work with both parties and to make sure the partnership is successful.
During the 2 year KTP with the University of Wolverhampton and Malthouse Engineering, Mark Hayward a marketing graduate was employed to help improve the awareness of Malthouse and a cluster group of 20 manufacturing firms of which Malthouse is a member. His main area of interest was digital marketing and communication, through his efforts both Malthouse Engineering and members of the cluster group experienced some impressive results.
“During the KTP period we were able to increase the number of visits to the Malthouse Engineering website by over 922%” explains Mark, “This has led to improved awareness of the steel profiling services that Malthouse can offer. Other members of the cluster have also benefited from improved websites and support in marketing and promoting their services online. All together the KTP has delivered £2.1 million in financial benefits from combined cost savings and revenue generated. It has given me a great deal of experience and knowledge and has led to me being offered a position by Malthouse at the end of the partnership.”
The KTP has been recognised by other organisations as being a success including the Lord Stafford Awards which shortlisted the KTP in the Open Collaboration category in 2011 and Cisco Systems who presented members of the KTP with the Cisco Systems Prize for New Technologies also in 2011.
“It is fantastic news that we have been nominated for the Best Partnership Award. The success of our KTP is a testament to the hard work of all those involved from the University and Malthouse Engineering” said Roy Taylor, Managing Director of Malthouse Engineering. “I think we have shown that business working with higher education can not only deliver substantial benefits for the company involved but also for the graduate and University.”
The selection of the finalists is taking place over the next few months with the shortlist expected to be announced by the end of the summer.
For more information on Malthouse Engineering go to www.MalthouseEngineering.com or you can connect with us on Linked In by going to our company page or you can follow us on Twitter at @MalthouseEng.
