Member Article

Skills are key to UK manufacturing development

It’s manufacturing focus week on Bdaily, and we’re looking at the debate around the UK sector. John Morris, chief executive of JAM Recruitment in Manchester, has given his opinion on the importance of developing skills to make the most of the UK’s manufacturing capabilities. Read on to hear more of his views.

“The government’s drive to re-balance the economy towards manufacturing has shown early signs of promise, with growth outstripping many other areas of the economy and many manufacturers feeling quietly confident that 2013 will be a more positive year.

“However, there is still a significant barrier being faced by many businesses in the manufacturing sector – the inability to recruit technicians and engineers with the right skills and experience.

“Most expect their demand for skills to grow over the next three years as senior engineering staff retire and need to be replaced with younger professionals.

“A major report released for 2012 by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, and JAM Recruitment showed that three quarters of manufacturers say that recruiting employees is a key concern, while almost half said it was their business’ biggest concern.

“Any organisation is only as good as the people it employs, and for manufacturers to succeed in today’s market they need staff with the skills to run production efficiently, introduce innovations and develop markets.

“One of the underlying issues is the low number of young people opting to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects, even though those subjects offer some of the best career prospects. Starting salaries for engineers, for example, are some of the best in the market.

“Clearly a major awareness campaign is urgently needed to convey the level of opportunity that exists in the engineering profession to young people and parents, but this is something that needs government backing if it is to be effective.

“Another critical issue, however, is postgraduate training. The positions that manufacturers are currently finding it most difficult to fill are at higher skills levels – experienced people who are ready to be productive from day one on the job. Often these are not skills you can teach in the classroom.

“There has been some reluctance among businesses to invest in training up their more junior employees and perhaps this is understandable in the current climate, with the risk of defection to a competitor often considered too great to justify the expense.

“This is an unhealthy state of affairs, however, and until something changes manufacturers will continue to find it difficult to source more senior technicians. Working with a well-connected recruiter can make the search easier, but the reality is that the skills supply is simply falling short of demand.

“Thankfully, there are encouraging signs that the situation is improving and that manufacturers are developing solutions – three in every five respondents to the EEF survey are upping their training budgets, and two in three are already running their own apprenticeship schemes.

“However, many of the employers we speak to who are trying to take command of their skills agenda feel training policies are confused and government support is lacking, and many companies have lost heart because of the management time required.

“The challenges are clear when you look at the statistics. In engineering and manufacturing disciplines, the number of advanced apprenticeships is still significantly below 2007/08 levels, despite an increase in apprenticeship starts across the economy as a whole.

“If the government is serious about fostering manufacturing growth, an urgent review of the systems governing training and apprenticeship schemes is needed to make it easier for businesses to invest in the skills they need.

“The solution proposed by the manufacturers’ organisation, the EEF is for a single industry standard for apprenticeships which is easy for employers to understand and access and which puts a real emphasis on higher level skills.

“Ultimately, if we are going to see a ‘March of the Makers’ in the UK, the government needs to act now to foster the young talent the industry desperately needs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .