Sector and Issues Based Fellowships

Alun Cairns MP for Vale of Glamorgan began a Fellowship in 2011 in the Financial Services sector looking at corporate and retail banking, private equity and venture capital, wealth management and insurance. Alun’s time is divided between Aberdeen Asset Management, Barclays, BP Marsh, Brewin Dolphin, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Silicon Valley Bank, Standard Life Investments, and St James Place.

Mr Cairns said, “The IPT Scheme offered an excellent opportunity to gain a real life experience of the industry. At a time when there has been so much controversy in the sector and with legislation before Parliament, such experience was crucial to my contribution to the debate."

Nicky Morgan, PPS to David Willetts as Minister of State for Universities and Science is currently undertaking a Fellowship investigating UK manufacturing with a specific focus on access to finance and skills. Nicky is spending time with GKN, GlaxoSmithKline, Rolls-Royce, Thales UK, and University of Cambridge.

Nicky Morgan MP said, “It is really important for Members of Parliament, regardless of what they did before they were elected, to understand and listen to the needs of industry in all its many guises. I felt that manufacturing was such a critical sector for Britain and my IPT manufacturing Fellowship will allow me to get to grips with the issues facing our significant manufacturers who work across various sectors as well as their suppliers and also to see a business school in action."

Ian Murray MP, Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills began his IPT Fellowship in 2011 focussing on the cultural and creative industries. Representing Edinburgh South, Mr Murray is incorporating a series of regional visits to Creative Scotland, Realise Digital Design and WASPS Studios before visiting Arqiva, BBC, ITV, PACT and Royal Opera House.

Ian Murray MP said, “I signed up to do my Fellowship examining the cultural and creative industries as I feel it is incredibly important to understand its impact on the UK economy. The IPT has put together a fascinating and varied programme of visits right across the UK allowing me the opportunity to explore issues from access to finance all the way through to production."

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alistair Burt MP, completed his IPT Fellowship in higher education in 2006. He shared his Fellowship experience between four universities: the Universities of Bristol and Kingston, Imperial College and Royal Holloway of the University of London, together with a visit to Penn State, a public HE institution in Pennsylvania USA.

Alistair Burt MP said of his Fellowship, “We know it (higher education) makes a significant contribution to the economy nationally and locally, but few of my colleagues have had the opportunity I have to understand how a university actually works."

Government Whip, Jeremy Wright MP completed his IPT Fellowship in 2006 looking at the relationship between those who produce our food and those who retail it. Jeremy’s time was divided between the supermarkets Waitrose and the Co-Operative as well as the National Farmers Union, the Royal Agricultural Society of England and Farmers Weekly magazine.

Mr Wright said, “In the course of my 18 day Fellowship, I manhandled dead sheep, milked cows and mountaineered inside a fish-smoking chimney-now that is work experience worthy of the name!”

Between 2008 and 2010 Baroness Henig CBE completed a Fellowship investigating Energy Security and Nuclear Energy. She spent time with RWE npower, British Energy (now part of EDF Energy), Westinghouse, Sellafield Ltd, and Muncaster Castle. The Fellowship began with a focus on broad energy security and supply issues with RWE npower and then focussed into nuclear energy.

Baroness Henig stated: “I very much welcomed the evolutionary nature of the Fellowship because it gave me the opportunity to follow up some specific energy issues in depth, whilst also appreciating the wider context in which they [energy companies] operated.”