Pupils from Fernwood Primary School in Nottingham recently had the opportunity to visit the "world’s most efficient brick factory".

Ibstock had invited 27 Year 5 and Year 6 students to its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Leicestershire to inspire them into thinking about the wide range of opportunities available in manufacturing.

The day included a tour of Ibstock’s Eclipse factory. The site, located on an old landfill site close to its principle source of raw materials, covers the size of six football pitches and includes a host of innovative technologies.

Gareth Emmonds, Group HR Manager at Ibstock, said: “Part of our commitment to the local community is to inspire the next generation of talented individuals. As a business, we are extremely passionate about recruiting and developing young people, so we were delighted to welcome pupils and staff from Fernwood Primary School to our Eclipse factory and head offices in Leicestershire to tell them more about who we are and the exciting career opportunities available here.

Along with the factory tour, pupils learned more about Ibstock’s heritage as well as the careers available at the company.

Emmonds and his team also talked about Ibstock’s apprenticeship programme, which has been running for over 20 years.

Other activities included the opportunity to look at how Ibstock is using innovative technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) to create smart homes of the future and the children also had the chance to build a computer with the support of Ibstock’s IT team.

Simon Holroyd, Deputy Head at Fernwood Primary School, commented: “It really was a fantastic day that all the children enjoyed so I’d like to thank Ibstock for inviting us.

“The idea was to open the children’s eyes to the exciting world of manufacturing and construction and talk about the different pathways into industry. Not every pupil wants to go to university, so hearing about Ibstock’s apprenticeship programme and the support and training their apprentices get was fascinating for them.”