The Future Foundry Project has enabled over 1,600 school pupils in the UK to learn about castings and the foundry industry as a producer of components for modern life, and as a key part of the circular economy for metals.
Instigated in 2022 by The Institute of Cast Metals Engineers, ICME, and supported financially by the Foundry Training Trust, the project’s main aims were to increase awareness of careers in the casting industry and improve the availability of casting specific training and development. The project has also resulted in a significant increase in the training for the UK foundry industry, both in terms of the number of days of training delivered as well as the range and number of courses available. In addition to this, several legacy items have also been produced for the industry, including a series of careers videos, a PowerPoint presentation and a website.
A Shortage of Skills
UK foundries regularly report a shortage of skilled people to work in their businesses. There are also limited training providers offering foundry specific training to those in the industry and no colleges or universities offering foundry specific courses. Foundries in the UK castings industry struggle to find apprentices and the image of the industry is generally poor.
The ICME, as one of the leading providers of professional development for the industry in the UK, approached the Foundry Training Trust to request grant funding to support a project to help address both of these issues with project management carried out by ICME staff as an in-kind contribution. The Cast Metals Federation, CMF also provided significant in-kind contributions, consisting of time and technical support to the project.
There were two main objectives for the project:
- To increase the numbers of individuals undertaking training and development in the UK Foundry and Castings Industry.
- To increase the number of recruits, including apprentices and graduates entering the industry, working with partners.
Through supporting ICME with industry engagement, course development and logistics, the project has enabled a significant increase in the range and number of courses, as well as the number of individuals receiving training. In 2022 ICME offered 126 courses and the number of man-days of training (number of attendees x duration, in days) was just 371. By the end of 2025 this had increased to 170 courses and almost 500 man-days. ICME also delivered over 750 days of training to industry of casting specific units of an EAL Diploma at level 3.
Showcasing Careers in the Castings Industry in Schools
Raising the profile of careers in the industry to encourage more recruits and make it easier for foundries to attract and recruit apprentices is clearly a longer-term process but significant progress has been made throughout the duration of the project.
A partner with expertise in manufacturing-specific schools’ engagement and manufacturing, Next Gen Makers, was engaged to help design and deliver a work programme, building upon the experience with schools using the ‘Foundry in a Box’ kits developed by The Cast Metals Federation and being used by some of their member foundries.
The main aims of the objective were further broken down into the need to, 1) raise awareness of careers in the Cast Metal industry, 2) shape positive perceptions of the industry & careers prospects within it to the target audience and 3) raise awareness of the different types of apprenticeships available in the sector.
Initial work included the co-creation of an umbrella brand, ‘Casting My Future’ by ICME, CMF and Next Gen Makers in 2023 and then a pilot project was developed, focusing on one specific region (the West Midlands), and focussing on 4 student age groups: Year 8, 10, 11 and where possible, year 13, as well as School Influencers (teachers & careers leaders).
Next Gen Makers was tasked with creating the sector’s first ever coordinated school outreach initiative, including developing legacy ‘ever-green’ resources:
- Developing the Casting My Future brand & key messaging.
- Creating a website.
- Creating an online Virtual Reality Factory Tour experience.
- VR headsets.
- Creating a PowerPoint careers presentation.
- Casting My Future promo video.
- A ‘leave behind’ flyer including QR code links to online information.
Next Gen Makers then generated interest amongst schools and colleges within the region to run ‘in classroom’ sessions for the target age groups, also involving teachers and careers leaders, achieving the following outcomes during the 2023-2024 academic year:
- Delivered in classroom by Next Gen Makers with complimentary careers talk and ‘pop quiz’. Covering year groups 8 – 11 and specific D&T classes within 10
- Included interactive Virtual Reality experience of x2 foundries + apprentice & staff videos
Post session, students signposted to a dedicated careers website castingmyfuture.co.uk via QR codes, to find employers and further careers insight. - In school sessions followed up with x3 Factory Tours for year 9 and 10 students at x2
Learning from the feedback from schools participating in the pilot, phase 1, Next Gen Makers then created a ‘webinar’ based experience delivered into school classrooms, that maintained all features of the prior classroom-based experience.
The schools’ sessions generally followed the format:
- Careers Talk.
- VR experience.
- Quiz (e.g.: what is the name of the building where casting happens? What are examples of things you can make within the casting process? What are example jobs in a foundry?)
- Share ‘Casting My Future’ website link at end.
A second phase, delivering even more sessions during the academic year, was delivered during Sept 2024 to July 2025 as shown in the table below.
| Academic Year | No of Schools | No of Sessions | Average Attendance per session | Estimated total attendance of sessions | No of Factory Visits Completed
|
Average Attendance per Factory Visit | Estimated total attendance of Factory Visits |
| 23/24 | 10 | 10 | 40 | 450 | 3 | 18 | 54 |
| 24/25 | 15 | 28 | 40 | 1120 | 6 | 18 | 108 |
Phase 3 was carried out (during 2025-2026) in two regions, the West Midlands and East Anglia, focussing on schools located close to foundries, increasing the reach of the programme to even more young people.
The project has also enabled the development of a further 32 careers videos that ICME, CMF and companies and schools can use, see https://www.youtube.com/@CastingtheFuture/videos
One of the most satisfying aspects of the project has been the positive feedback from the all the participants – school children, their teachers and the participating foundries.
Lessons Learned and Future Opportunities
As a result of the project, more courses are available across the range of casting processes and including a cast iron metallurgy programme that has led to proven bottom-line benefits for employers, and a new aluminium casting metallurgy version, all helping to further establish ICME as one of the ‘go to providers’ for foundry-specific training in the UK. In addition, ICME now has an improved list of key contacts in the foundry industry (e.g. training managers, HR professionals) which will enable better promotion of the training on offer to companies.
Constructive lessons have been learned during the project and several areas identified where more work could be undertaken, including increasing and showcasing stories about the positive impacts that training courses and professional development have on both individuals and companies, as well as more work to develop training courses to address skills gaps in the industry.
In terms of apprentice recruitment and promotion of careers in casting, a fully virtual approach would be beneficial to allow schools to complete the ‘Casting My Future’ project themselves, to facilitate greater reach on a national basis.
Plus, ICME would also like to develop a more detailed career pathway for young people, to show young people visually the career options and qualifications that would be available to them to enable them to develop careers in the UK castings and foundry industry.
including for castings users and designers of cast components who need have a good understanding of casting as a route to manufacture – this
“We are confident that the project has had a significant impact on the targeted audience and increased both the number of individuals accessing foundry specific training and awareness amongst young people and their teachers around careers available in the Casting and Foundry industry in the UK. I would like to express our thanks to Foundry Training Trust for the financial support, encouragement and continued support to enable such impactful projects for the casting and foundry industry.”
The Foundry Training Trust is a UK charity dedicated to helping the cast metals industry to improve the knowledge base working within it through offering grants to support the professional development of individuals – to find out about eligibility and to apply, please visit:
