Meet Nile Henry, founder of The Blair Project
Nile Henry, CEO of The Blair Project, is a young leader straddling the arenas of motorsport and green tech. Nile founded the organisation when he was 18 years old and to date The Blair Project’s flagship ProtoEV STEM Challenge has supported more than 560 young people since its launch in 2014. The challenge, which gives people knowledge and practical skills in renewable technologies through the retrofitting of petrol go-karts to e-karts, has resulted in 95 per cent of participants going on to related careers, apprenticeships, further education and even entrepreneurship.
What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?
I was inspired to launch The Blair Project by my younger brother, Blair. Growing up, Blair had always been incredibly passionate about motorsport and loved all things racing. However, as he grew up, we saw first-hand how difficult it was to get into the sport due to the cost and lack of diversity.
I set up The Blair Project to address this. I also saw an opportunity to disrupt an industry that is typically very harmful for the environment, which is where the inclusion of and focus on green technologies came from.
Through our training courses, The Blair Project gives people of all ages hands on experience in skills such as battery technologies, electric motors, powertrain systems, computer-aided design, 3D printing and sensor technologies. While we do this through improving vehicle performance, the skills learnt are applicable in a number of STEM industries, and participants are inspired to pursue highly skilled careers or further education after completion.
How did you conquer those moments of doubt that so often entrepreneurs or stop many with great ideas – what pushes you through?
The most important thing is having a supportive network around me. The Blair Project is a family-run business and I feel incredibly lucky to have my mum, Marilyn, and my younger brother, Blair, working alongside me. Together, we’re a very strong team and I know that whatever happens, we have each other’s backs. While there have been times when I’ve felt down, they have always been there to pick me back up, and vice versa.
I’m also a strong believer in the ‘see me, be me’ effect. As a young black person, there aren’t many people in positions of power who look like me. When I’m having a tough day, thinking about the impact that my visibility might be having on a future black entrepreneur motivates me to keep pushing against all odds.
With all the success stories around entrepreneurship and how innovative people have to be to take the leap, how do you think you’ve innovated in your sector and why?
We knew from the very beginning that to succeed in our mission to make motorsport more affordable, accessible, inclusive and sustainable that we needed to innovate. That meant focusing on electrification.
We created the ProtoEV STEM Challenge, where schools and youth clubs retrofit petrol go-karts into fully electric e-karts to develop a diverse talent pipeline to drive the green industrial revolution for the long term.
Seeing the success we were having with young people, we wanted to widen our reach to include the education and reskilling of adults in these cutting-edge technologies. We adapted the ProtoEV STEM Challenge into a training programme for adults and conceptualised the Manchester Innovation Activities Hub (MIAH). This is a Net Zero industrialisation and electrification skills training centre intended to upskill, reskill, and new skill local residents in Industry 4.0 technologies. This unique offering will fast track our students into hard to fill occupations within Manchester Science Park, requiring specialist technical skills. MIAH is the only centre of its kind in the UK, marking a truly innovative solution to filling the UK skills gap.
What’s the single most important decision that you made that contributed to your business?
When we started out, we only worked with young people. The service we offered was seasonal and based on the school academic year where 80 per cent of our income stream was generated between February – July. Our ProtoEV STEM Challenge was due to be rolled out nationally in March 2020 with 20 teams from Greater Manchester, London and Oxford. However, the impact of the first lockdown resulted in us losing our main income stream. This was a huge blow and at first we thought we’d never be able to recover.
Knowing we couldn’t rely on income from schools and seeing the increasing passion adults have for green technologies, we adapted our offering so it was suitable for adults who had lost their jobs during the pandemic.
Thanks to this pivot we are now an approved provider with Job Centre Plus and run 10-day green tech taster training sessions for over 300 unemployed people each year. The aim is to upskill and reskill each one of them so they can work with green technologies and transition into well paid careers moving forward.
The result is that we were able to buck the trend and have not only survived but thrived as a result of the pandemic. We now employ 9 people with a further 10 new staff joining in February 2022.
We also used the lockdown period to complete a feasibility study to assess the viability of creating MIAH and partnered with Manchester Science Partnerships and Burntwood Sci Tech to secure £4 million of Central Government funding.
How does technological advancement speak to the strategic direction of your business?
Staying ahead of technological trends is so important for us as a business. We are working at the cutting edge of technological advancements - developing hydrogen-powered electric go karts, integrating fuel cells with advanced battery management systems to extend vehicle range, battery life, and power systems. As well as training the people that will be essential in developing these technologies further. Technology and the advancement of it sits at the heart of everything we do.
Does your company help the community that you’re located in?
Being based in Manchester means that we are surrounded by a network of ambitious and trailblazing businesses and people. Our northern roots have been pivotal in helping us grow and putting us in touch with organisations that we learn from daily and partner and collaborate with. As a result of this, we’ve entered a five-year consortium agreement with four universities and three engineering and tooling companies to develop hydrogen powered e-karts.
But community goes beyond geographical location. As a black entrepreneur, I do feel a responsibility to be a role model to young black people. Particularly in the world of motorsport where diversity is limited it’s so important for young black people to be able to see people who look like them in positions of influence.
My hope is that young black people will see me and be inspired by my story of achievement against all odds. I want them to go beyond society’s expectations and prove the doubters wrong.
Why do you think your business has had such a positive impact across your industry?
While many people talk about inciting change, at The Blair Project, we are action oriented. From the get-go we’ve set ourselves apart by campaigning for and acting on what we feel is right. Our training programme is the first of its kind and speaks to a real need for the trained workforce to fill highly skilled jobs, while maintaining an awareness of sustainability.
As black leaders in STEM, we break the stereotype. By seeing The Blair Project succeeding, I hope that other young black innovators will be inspired to reach higher.
What are your top tips for entrepreneurs wanting to get their business out there?
It’s important to realise your limits. I was only 18 when I started The Blair Project, and definitely didn’t (and still don’t!) know everything, so acknowledging this early on and building a team with the business and technical skills needed to grow was vital to our success later down the line. We now have a brilliant team with a wealth of knowledge around battery technologies, powertrains and motors, and 3D printing, that is set to grow further.
Similarly, networking is an invaluable tool that can really make a difference when you are starting up a business. From formalised networks such as the Manchester Climate Change Youth Board and Manchester’s Social Enterprise Action Group to everyday conversations with youth groups, education providers, and karting and manufacturing groups, ‘power networks’ have provided endless insight and opportunity as we have grown.
Finally, don’t give up when things get difficult. It’s easy to let failure get you down, but it’s all about learning from that and using it to propel you forward to the next opportunity.
How do you believe the evolution of tech will impact your industry over the next 10 years?
Virtual reality will transform the way education and training will be delivered. I can see participants on our programmes receiving training in the retrofitting of vehicles through a virtual classroom before they begin in the real world. This would be revolutionary as we could deliver the training to individuals all across the world, giving us global reach.
Why do you think now is the right time for the world to begin exploring and adopting technology that aids sustainability?
In recent years, particularly among the younger generation, there has been a seismic shift. We are more aware than ever that the way we live now is simply not sustainable, and more needs to be done to reduce our impact on the planet.
Science and innovation are vital for doing this. Here in the UK, there is so much innovation. But it’s not enough to create new green technologies, we need people who are able to use these new technologies and can take them further.
The UK’s STEM skills shortage is causing problems for many employers. Across the country it costs businesses £1.5 billion each year as a result of additional training costs, recruitment, temporary staffing and inflated salaries.
That’s why we need organisations like The Blair Project and programmes like MIAH to kickstart this transition and make the vital changes that will be incredibly important over the coming decades.
