Through our work experience scheme we collaborate with local schools and colleges, delivering education and training for young people. A key element of our strategy is to provide our community with sustainable socio-economic benefits. This has never been more important since Stoke-on-Trent is now recognised by the UK government as one of the most deprived areas of England.
As a successful and long standing business, we provide an ideal platform from which to create sustainable demand for local skills, employment and supply chain development. We understand that we are a large manufacturing facility and therefore mitigate the most adverse consequences of our activities.
To us, socio-economics is about providing meaningful employment, providing financial investment in the future of our workforce, providing support and innovation to local Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and providing support to community activities. We feel that each of these initiatives helps our local community to thrive.
Goodwin International has a socio-economic strategy which has three key themes that support our business and local area:
| OBJECTIVE | PERFORMANCE METRIC | TARGET |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Employment | % recruited living locally (within 20 mile radius) | Maintain at 85% or better |
| 2. Education, skills and training | No. of work experience placements No. of apprentices | 5 placements per annum Minimum 5% of workforce |
| 3. Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) | % SME spend % of SMEs used within 20 mile radius | 10% spend with SMEs per annum 80% target |
| 4. Community Investment | Value committed to community projects Community projects engaged in | £30,000 per annum 2 projects per annum |
The centre is located less than two miles from our main site in Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent. The facility is a council-run project which provides support and services for families with children under the age of 5. We completed a regeneration project for the centre in July 2016 which saw over 30 of our staff volunteer to improve the centre’s outdoor facilities.
There is currently a significant skills shortage of high quality engineers, not only in Stoke-on-Trent, but in the whole of the UK. Goodwin offers a sustainable employment opportunity and has created a purpose built training facility that is now a centre of excellence for our engineering apprentices. This opportunity has seen 95% of our apprentices stay on to build successful careers with the company.
The ‘Dougie Mac’ is a charity that has directly impacted on the lives of many local people including many of our own employees. The hospice offers specialised care for people who face a life-limiting illness when a cure is no longer possible. Since 2014, we have donated the Christmas tree for the hospice’s ‘Light up a Life’ campaign which has so far helped them to raise an additional £540,000 towards their running costs.
Working collaboratively with not-for-profit organisations is something that we feel is fundamental to the growth of the local community and offers sustainable opportunities for local people. In March 2017, we carried out a project in the heart of Stoke town centre, just four miles from our site. The project was to refurbish a facility for the Community RePaint scheme which collects unwanted, surplus and leftover paint, diverting it from the waste stream and redistributing it to individuals, families and community projects in social need.
The product range offered by Goodwin has now been extended to include a selection of high performance Axial Isolation and Control Valves.
Several years of Research, Design and Testing has been carried out to bring these products to market, with international patents pending for innovative design features.
Axial Isolation & Control Valves are used in highly demanding applications where tight shut off, high reliability, fast opening / closing and precise control are desired. Goodwin Axial Isolation & Control Valves represent a highly effective and cost efficient alternative to current designs available to the market.
