Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street visits Petalite
This month we were pleased to welcome the Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street to the Petalite head offices based in central Birmingham, UK.
The Mayor was given a tour of Petalite’s R&D facilities by our founder Leigh Purnell. Leigh shared his passion for sustainability and energy solutions within the electric vehicle charging industry and introduced him to our engineering team to explain how our technology is unique in comparison to current EV rapid charger providers. We then offered The Mayor an opportunity to perform a rapid DC charge on our Tesla Model 3, using our innovative SDC demonstration EV charger.
We explained to The Mayor that Petalite is proud to grow in the West Midlands, a global hub for automotive innovation. Many of our current employees have grown up here, or attended Midland based universities. We explained that we are committed to creating hundreds of job opportunities within the region.
The Mayor also praised Petalite for taking part in the UK Government’s Kickstarter scheme in 2021, which gave young people in the UK an opportunity to work and gain valuable career skills, especially when the Covid pandemic had prevented so many opportunities for them to find work. Petalite offered several full-time six-month contracts to West Midland based 16 to 24-year-olds, enabling them to start a career in electrical engineering at a fast growing clean-tech company. The contracts were fully funded by the UK Government and aided in reducing the risk of long-term unemployment of young people in the West Midlands. When they completed their six-month contract, we could offer employed roles for those who showed enthusiasm and commitment to the business and the EV charging industry.
Our Engineering Technician, Faizan Mahmood, started his career at Petalite in 2021 on the Kickstarter scheme at age 20, he says:
“As a young person who had left college, I needed to gain work experience and the government’s Kickstarter programme was advised by my work coach. Petalite offered an opportunity in line with the skills I gained at college where I was able to build and wind transformers from scratch and solder small components which increased my hand-eye coordination. I also populated and assembled DC charger cabinets and gained experience in component stock management.
One of my proudest moments was the opportunity to work on the first prototype SDC charger with highly experienced engineers I was able to learn from. When my six-month contract finished, Petalite offered me a full-time, permanent position and the opportunity to continue training. I am now an Engineering Technician and support the engineering team by managing and setting up test equipment, operating out industrial 3D printers to create prototypes of our AC and DC chargers as well as soldering prototype PCBs for testing.”
Read more about the Mayor of the West Midland’s visit on his official LinkedIn page.
