Owen Birks

Meet Owen Birks, Workshop Team Leader at Magnomatics. Owen came on The Work-wise Foundation Summer Academy in 2012.

Meet Owen Birks, Workshop Team Leader at Magnomatics. Owen came on The Work-wise Foundation Summer Academy in 2012.

Tell us about your company.

Magnomatics provide design and analysis services and manufacture a wide range of electrical machines and related products.

Why did you attend the programme/event delivered by The Work-wise Foundation?

My secondary school at the time did not include work experience as part of the curriculum. I had always found engineering fascinating, with small household projects such as engine building and bike & scooter maintenance. My father has also had a successful career in the engineering sector, whom I admired from a very young age.

What has been your education to employment journey so far?

I attended the The Work-wise Foundation Summer Academy in 2012 (aged 13), where I learned new skills and initially gauged an understanding of how adult life, particularly in business, worked. The company selected happened to be the company I work at now, and I have further progressed through the hierarchy to become the Workshop Team Leader (previously Product Development Technician).

I attended Magnomatics voluntarily each year through school holidays, which was a sacrifice well made as Magnomatics employed me as their first ever apprentice in 2015. This included a level 3 course at the AMRC Training Centre in Sheffield, in which my qualifications are attached above.

After the completion of my apprenticeship, I was made a full-time employee in 2018 where I began my roll as a Product Development Technician. I have further had internal and external training courses, allowing me to work more safely and effectively in the workplace.

I am currently still studying a Team Leader/Supervisor Level 3 course externally, which ties in with my current job roll at Magnomatics.

What do you like most about your current position?

I like planning activities and making assembly work cost effective, as well as safe for all our Product Development Technicians. 

What are your future aspirations?

My future aspiration is to continue working at Magnomatics and helping plan a site expansion for our upcoming production orders.

We are currently in a transition period from prototype machines to large batch production for a large marine propulsion business in the UK. 

This will require me to create capacity plans (for staff and tooling), consider storage and dispatch and review procedures relative to health and safety.

Please tell us how your experience with The Work-wise Foundation has impacted your career.

The Work-wise Foundation ultimately gave me the opportunity to meet my long term employer, as well as teaching key skills about the workplace and how to transition to industry from school.