Manufacturing 2015: Skills shortages inhibit industry
A SHORTAGE of skills is the biggest single challenge to industrial growth faced by the manufacturing sector, industry specialists have said.
Massive investment by many companies into developing new products and services will come to nothing is requisite labour force is not in place to deliver them, the experts have said.
TheBusinessDesk.com and international law firm Squire Patton Boggs have collaborated on a new report gauging levels of confidence within the manufacturing sector and what businesses in the region want to see happen over the course of the next 12 months.
To download a copy of the new report click here
The survey showed that 60% of respondents cited the skills shortage as the most significant issue facing their development; while many said they were concerned about having to retain an aging workforce.
A similar number (60%) also agreed that the skills gap was likely to impact their business in the short to medium term.
Upskilling a workforce through apprenticeship schemes and training programmes is seen as a part-solution to the problem, however, many firms believe only a fundamental change in the education system and a proper focus on STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths – will provide a long-term solution to the problem.
Squire Patton Boggs and TheBusinessDesk.com brought together a panel of manufacturing experts to debate the issue and all agreed that the skills gap had to be tacked quickly.
Dr Richard Hutchins is director of Jaguar Land Rover Programmes at the renowned Warwick Manufacturing Group.
Hutchins – who is also a board member of the Coventry and Warwickshire’s LEP – said: “Without doubt, the skills shortage remains the biggest challenge to industrial growth. There are also a huge number of engineers and technicians in the industry about to retire which is likely to create another issue.
“What do we do about it? This is a very complex area and I think that few people really understand the whole breadth of the challenge. I think that we need to join secondary education with the business world. But there’s another issue here: the Department for Education is resolutely separate from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
“Until we join these two department’s policy agendas at a national level I think that we’re always going to struggle with this issue.”
Carl Perrin, Director, Institute of Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering, said there should also be a greater focus on highlighting the opportunities of manufacturing as a career.
“It’s my impression that it’s not just parents and students who aren’t aware what opportunities are present within manufacturing, it’s also the case that the schools themselves aren’t aware. When I bring school pupils into a factory and they see for themselves the technology that’s present in terms of robots and automation, it’s never what they anticipated. They quickly realise that it’s rewarding, interesting and a good career to be in,” he said.
“I don’t think that we do enough to sing about our successes.”
Simon Garbett, Partner at Squire Patton Boggs, said decisive, joined-up and sustainable action needed to be taken by government to continue to actively promote manufacturing and remove obvious barriers to long term stability and growth.
He said: “This is one of those perennial issues – but I’m also aware that here in the West Midlands big companies like JCB and JLR don’t always have the same problems attracting and retaining the brightest and the best that other manufacturers’ more routinely experience.
“That said, the country generally has issues attracting students to study STEM subjects to ensure that the next generation of engineers can be fostered. A lack of STEM lecturers and graduates is part of the problem; but the increasing focus by companies on partnerships with schools, colleges and universities, as well as other stakeholders, and an increasing awareness of the need to invest in industrially relevant and technically excellent training and apprenticeships, are obvious moves in the right direction.”
How is the problem perceived in other areas?
North West
