Personal and professional development is important to us at Kane. We encourage staff to train in their particular disciplines to be the best they can be.
Being a UK manufacturer with in-house engineering, we are always looking towards the future. It is important to help and encourage the next generation of engineers – that’s why we decided to offer summer placements to two undergraduates from Brunel University.
KANE Managing Director Jonathan Hoole is a mentor on the Brunel Professional Mentoring Programme. The programme is a career focused mentoring scheme that connects students from underrepresented backgrounds with experienced professionals to develop their planning and interpersonal skills.
Jonathan was himself a student at Brunel, graduating with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering with Electronic Systems. He was that impressed by two of his mentees, Paolo Njoku and Dan Dimitrov, that offered them the chance to interview for roles within the engineering and production departments at Kane.
Jonathan said: “My time at Brunel University was life changing and gave me an incredible set of skills to start my career. Being a mentor has enabled me to give back to Brunel.
“During my career I have been lucky to meet exceptional individuals who have contributed to my personal development. As Sir Isaac Newton said “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” I hope I can pass on some wisdom to my mentees.”
Since joining Kane in June, Paolo and Dan have been fully immersed in working life at Kane, helping on projects such as programming, hands-on electronics assembly and gaining first-hand experience of Kane’s lean manufacturing processes.
Jonathan said: “We have been very impressed by the quality of their work. Paolo and Dan have help us increase business productivity by introducing standard work procedures and automatic test jigs. The summer placement at Kane also developed their interpersonal skills after exposure to several sectors of the business.
“The mentoring programme has been a success and we will continue the collaboration with Brunel into the foreseeable future.”
Paolo said: “Kane have helped me learn so many things already. I get to experience how a business works, got given some responsibilities and the opportunity to take the initiative on the projects I am working on.”
Dan Said: “Kane have given me the opportunity to learn how to use several new sets of software and develop my C programming skills, as well as learn about business concepts such as lean manufacturing.
“I have enjoyed working and learning from the people around me. Collaboration with others on projects is certainly my favourite aspect of the placement so far.”