At our Scholars and Apprentices Awards Ceremony last night we heard from Professor Sam Luke from Sinclair Knight Merz about why his company works with Satro - so many people in the audience have requested a copy of his speech that we are reproducing some of it here so that you can be as inspired as the audience was last night -

You [the young people receiving awards] are our leaders of tomorrow. We need you all to continue to excel to make Surrey and the south east of England prosperous. Let’s look at some statistics. The south east is the second largest economic block just behind London, with a value of nearly £200bn. The region has the largest number of businesses of any region in the UK and is the most affluent.  It would be the 31^st largest economy in the world. Surrey has some of the most high tech businesses in the UK and is home to over 60,000 businesses. Surrey is the largest in the South East in terms of GDP, tax revenue, etc, and Guildford was the most competitive city in the UK in 2009 and 2010. Surrey has some of the best schools in the country and an educational system second to none in the UK.

We need to continue to increase our competitiveness, be more innovative, generate new ideas, and create new jobs, so we continue to be world class. How do we continue to do this? By investing in education, investing in you people, industry and academia working hand in hand to give youngsters who are bright and entrepreneurial the opportunity to shine and flourish through scholarships, through research and development and technological advancement.

I have been investing with the Satro Scholars Programme for 6 years now, and have sponsored/ or am sponsoring 20 students. These students add a huge amount of value to our business when they work for us during their summer vacations. We are also able to train them so when they hopefully join us when they complete their studies, they hit the ground running. Our investment pays for itself very quickly. There are numerous examples of students who have excelled for us during their summer breaks. I would urge other firms in Surrey who have not yet taken the plunge to go for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.