2021 - Inzpire's Year in Numbers
30 Dec 21
BY Becki Hall
30 Dec 21
BY Becki Hall
With the first quarter of 2021 spent largely in lockdown and the latter half of the year spent adjusting to the 'new normal' of hybrid working, you could be forgiven for thinking that 2021 may have been a quieter year than normal for Inzpire.
In fact, that couldn't be further from the truth, with our employees working as hard as possible to adapt business processes to incorporate more digital communication methods. From online GECO demonstrations to digitised simulator events for customers, even when we couldn't meet up face-to-face the Inzpire team was still engaging with people worldwide.
When we could meet up in person once more, we enjoyed a number of major exhibitions and trade shows including DSEI - where we showcased 3 new simulator products - as well as I/ITSEC and the Dubai Airshow.
Inzpire's Compact Agile Simulator Equipment was a hit at DSEI. The JTAC version is a mixed-reality simulator training capability which consists of a series of ruggedised deployable cases.
2021 saw 61 new faces join the Inzpire family, with over 600 people applying for jobs with us. Our most popular recruitment campaign was our Unmanned Air System (UAS) Operator expression of interest which received 163 applicants!
As of December, 77% of Inzpire is ex-military.
Inzpire’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) ambassadors have hosted in excess of 2100 students at a number of STEM events and careers events.
Our quality management team conducted a total of 16 audits for external customers in 7 different countries. They were auditing for different companies for a total of 50 days. They also carried out 18 internal audits.
Our Technical and Strategic Services (TSS) personnel have been extremely busy all year, bringing in 29 contracts. Almost a quarter of Inzpire’s new joiners this year have joined our TSS team, with 14 new members joining the division in total.
Our Civilian Qualified Helicopter Instructors (CQHIs) from Odiham have flown just over 660 Chinook sorties including delivering pre-deployment training, currency training, completing environmental qualifications, night tactical formation flying and air-to-ground gunnery training to 7 Sqn, 18 Sqn, 27 Sqn, 28 Sqn, 22 Sqn and the Chinook Maintenance School.
Our Wildcat CQHIs have had an equally busy year. The 3 instructors have flown a total of 600 hours (almost exactly 200 each), including over 150 hours of night flying. They have also taught 30 students this year, from initial Conversion to Type to final Conversion to Role training.
Our Apache CQHI has taught 10 new Apache pilots who have gone on to join frontline Squadrons. Additionally, he instructed on the Apache Electronic Warfare Officer Course (7 students qualified), the Apache Electronic Warfare Simulator Instructor Course (6 students qualified) and the Apache Electronic Warfare Airborne Instructor Course (2 students qualified).
Our human factors experts have delivered just over 60 airmanship and human factors training courses to 22 Group student aircrew, training fractionally over 500 Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and Army Air Corps students on those courses. They also delivered bespoke training to 35 Explosive Ordnance Device (EOD) specialists.
Our business development team has visited 11 different countries, currently have active campaigns in 25 different countries and have aided the successful exporting of products and services to 9 different countries (all whilst adhering to UK and international Covid restrictions!).
Over in Mission Systems Division, the team have issued 16 software releases in support of functionality updates and new customer deliveries – but not before they had completed just over 250 software tests to validate the updates! To support this software they have also created and issued 1061 new guidance documents and delivered 45 training courses both internal and external. To ensure they continue in their exceptional customer delivery, they have instigated 33 new internal working processes and when they weren’t working hard on software creation, they were on the road or flying internationally with over 25,000 road and air miles covered in 2021! And, of course, they were bestowed with 1 Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation (their second in 7 years!).
Our Mission Systems Division hosted Lord-Lieutenant of Lincolnshire Toby Dennis and Deputy Lieutenant Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach during a Queen's Awards reception at the company’s newly refurbished head office on Tue 23 Nov.
Our Training Services Division has been busy adapting to the ‘new normal’ with the creation of Inzpire’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to enable blended learning delivery. So far, 267 Inzpire employees have been enrolled on to the VLE and have completed training on 15 internal courses, whilst 199 external customer students studied 13 different courses through the portal.
Our Space Division has also created 5 new commercial-off-the-shelf training courses, available through our Training Academy.
Running for 2 weeks in May 21, Ex STRIKE WARRIOR involved more than 20 warships, 3 submarines and 150 aircraft from 11 nations. Specifically, Inzpire provided 2 Liaison Officers (LNOs) at FASLANE to support our Joint Tactical Exercise Planning Staff customer, 1 SME embarked on the Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier (we recommend you read Daniel ‘Billy’ Bilclough’s blog about his experience!) and 7 complex mission scenarios developed by Inzpire’s White Force.
Daniel Bilcough embarked on HMS Queen Elizabeth during Ex Strike Warrior. MoD Crown Copyright 2021, LPhot Luke Unaisi
Our white force experts embedded alongside 92 Sqn have spent 1824 hours delivering live exercises for the customer, and have produced 324 mission documents for exercise scenarios.
Down the road at 29 Sqn, Inzpire’s embedded white force experts provided 34 weeks of live flying training resulting in the graduation of 7 new Qualified Weapons Instructors (QWIs): 4 Typhoon pilots; 2 fighter controllers; 1 x intelligence specialist.
When we weren’t hard at work, we were making the most of Inzpire’s flexible working policies to keep fit and enjoy some “me” time during what has of course been another very difficult year for everyone. At the time of writing, Collective Training Division’s Bob Chevli had rowed 1,447,024 on his indoor rowing machine, and hopes to overcome a knee injury to reach 1,500,000 before the New Year. And, by early December Sam Lincoln (Training Services Division) had cycled over 4433 kms (2735 miles) entirely indoors including 49,663m elevation, burning 95,929 calories.
20.03.23
New Joiners
Phil joins us as a principal training consultant having spent 20 years as a training specialist in the MOD.
Our team are here to help. If you have any questions, no matter how big or small, please get in touch.