Nelson-based organisation North West Aerospace Alliance speak at the Farnborough Air Show 2024

Lancashire Post

Digital Reporter Sam Quine speaks to Paula Gill, the CEO of North West Aerospace Alliance who are an organisation based in Nelson, Lancashire and work closely with BAE Systems.

Transcript

00:00Q. For our readers who may be on as well-versed with the defence industry, could you give

00:05a short summary of who North West Aerospace Alliance are, maybe any link with BAE Systems,

00:11just on the kind of simple level?

00:13Absolutely. So North West Aerospace Alliance is a membership organisation that was set

00:19up for the aerospace and defence sector 30 years ago, and it's to support businesses

00:26in manufacturing that want to work in those areas. So we bridge the gap between the primary

00:32businesses and the opportunities that are afforded to the manufacturing companies, making

00:37sure that they've got the right technology, the right skills, or certainly the training

00:42or access to it, access to funding, which is really important right now because it's

00:48a bit of a minefield, all of that, particularly when we're talking about new technology. But

00:54we're also the interface as well, where small, medium businesses will never get that

01:00opportunity to access the likes of BAE. So BAE, in particular, are a partner of NWAA,

01:08as in most of the times actually support us, and they actually join us as members too,

01:13so that when we have events and we network, we ask these businesses to come along. BAE

01:19are very good at doing that, they come along very often. But within the NWAA, we set up

01:26our board, our current board, actually consists of members from primary OEM businesses, tier

01:331s to tier 2s. So we have access to most up-to-date information around technology, so we can help

01:43enhance that journey for our members, and hopefully help grow them as part of the result of that as well.

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Transcript

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