Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Stevenson's, one of the country's major manufacture
rs of metal goods. Thank you for choosing us for your two weeks of work experience. My nam
e is Julia Simmons, and since the beginning of this year I've been the managing director.
Stevenson's is quite an old company. Like me, the founder, Ronald Stevenson, went into the
steel industry when he left school - that was in 1923. He set up this company when he fin
ished his apprenticeship, in 1926, although he actually started making plans two years ear
lier, in 1924. He was a very determined young man! Stevenson's long-term plan was to manuf
acture components for the machine toolsindustry - although in fact that never came about -
and for the automotive industry, that is, cars and lorries. However, there was a delay of
five years before that happened, because shortly before the company went into production,
Stevenson was given the opportunity to make goods for hospitals and other players in the
healthcare industry, so that's what we did for the first five years. Over the years, we've
expanded the premises considerably - we were lucky that the site is big enough, so moving
to a new location has never been necessary. However, the layout is far from ideal for mod
ern machinery and production methods, so we intend to carry out major refurbishment of thi
s site over the next five years. I'd better give you some idea of what you'll be doing dur
ing your two weeks with us, so you know what to expect. Most mornings you'll have a presen
tation from one of the managers, to learn about their department, starting this morning wi
th research and development. And you'll all spend some time in each department, observing
what's going on and talking to people - as long as you don't stop them from doing their wo
rk altogether! In the past, a teacher from your school has come in at the end of each week
to find out how the group were getting on, but your school isn't able to arrange that thi
s year. OK, now I'lI bri