Rolls-Royce is on our case

As many of you will know, Rolls-Royce is based in Derby and has some 15,000 employees working there. Each year, new apprentices and graduates have the opportunity to carry out a project in their work time which will help one or more local communities or charities.
Last summer, along with other local community groups and charities, we were invited to suggest how a small team of young professionals, each contributing three hours per week between January and September 2014, could assist us.
Any final ideas agreed upon would be mutually beneficial for both parties: the Peregrine Project gains an enthusiastic and motivated team for nine months and  the company has a chance to help the local community with their team experiencing challenges they would not otherwise come across during their professional careers (and meeting some very different people too - starting with Nick M, Ian L and me!).
While we knew that the Community Investment team at Rolls-Royce really liked our proposals, we also heard that they attracted a great deal of interest among the apprentices and graduates (who are allowed to choose which project they want to work on).
Finally, in January, everything fell into place and we had a very successful first meeting with our team of  thirteen young professionals.  We discussed the general background to the Peregrine Project, what we have already achieved since 2005/6 and what we plan to achieve during and after the team’s nine months with us. We followed this by taking the team up the tower and onto Cathedral Green to look at the nest platform from below. Unfortunately the falcons chose to absent themselves, so our new colleagues had to imagine what a peregrine would look like were it perching on the edge of the nest platform! They did however enjoy the views from the top of the tower, including a splendid rainbow!

A tower-top view down St Mary's Gate (albeit in autumn!)

There are four tasks that the team will tackle:
The first is to think about how they can embed the peregrines and the project more deeply into the life of the city. Initial ideas have included opening an exhibition, setting up interpretation panels near the Cathedral to catch the eye of the passing public, putting peregrine logos on local buses or even creating a structure or sculpture that would make passers-by think of the birds that live way up above their heads.  There is a huge opportunity to expand the ways the team can raise awareness of the peregrines, rather than relying solely on the display that will be set up again in the cathedral shop window in the summer. The team will focus on generating ideas and then researching, developing and evaluating potential options – which they will present to us along with their recommendations later on.

Stylish interpretation on Cathedral green - but no mention of our birds (yet!)

The second task is for the team to help Ian Layton, our seasonal Engagement Officer, with his work of engaging people with disabilities and those from minorities and other ‘hard to reach’ communities - using links that must exist within the Rolls-Royce workforce.
Their third task is based around bird aerodynamics and devising ways to teach children about how birds and planes fly – which seemed very appropriate to them and to us (they are already researching how the baffles in the falcon’s nostrils might work!) The team will develop work sheets for schools and even for higher education as well.

Bird with an extra pay load.....Photo: Jon Salloway

The final task for the team to look at is how they might evaluate and increase the economic value of the Peregrine Project to the city.
So this new Rolls-Royce team has plenty to do and we are really looking forward to working with them throughout the coming season.
We’ll keep you informed from time to time as things progress....and we might even allow them to post to the blog too!
Nick B (DWT)