A WEST SOMERSET business has joined forces with Plymouth University to tackle the challenge of recruiting skilled and ambitious engineers to help design new scientific and medical instruments.

Through the partnership, Plymouth University engineering graduate Pierre Rouaze has now joined Singer Instruments as an electronics intern.

Singer Instruments invents, designs and makes specialist medical products for scientists all over the world from its state-of-the-art premises in Roadwater.

As a global player, the firm needs talented engineers but its rural location has traditionally made recruitment a challenge.

Singer Instruments Operations Manager Robbie Devlin said: "We’re not just looking for the necessary skills and experience, we also want to attract people who share our ethos of 'a responsibility to science'."

Mr Rouaze, who is originally from France, is due to graduate this summer with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

“I was looking for an research and development role to follow my university studies, so this internship came at the right time," Mr Rouaze said.

"Working with Singer Instruments is giving me the opportunity to design new components for machinery, which will help the business launch new products."