COMMENT: End skills blame-game and create new opportunities now
TALK to any manufacturer about their growth prospects and way before they get to issues such as export markets and difficulties accessing finance, almost all will say the biggest crisis facing the industry is the chronic lack of skills.
Ask for the reasons and you get the usual list of causes – complacent Governments, a lacklustre education system, businesses to happy to enjoy the good times without a thought for what may lie ahead.
But while playing the blame-game is easy enough, Britain itself cannot afford another wasted generation and with youth unemployment at record numbers it is vital new opportunities come sooner rather than later.
Back in the good times, when “credit crunch” sounded like a new breakfast cereal, many firms in the West Midlands – the UK’s manufacturing heartland let it be remembered – were bemoaning the skills problem and warning that a crisis was on the horizon.
Trying to persuade young people of the benefits of a career in engineering when universities were offering an abundance of media studies and golf course management degrees was a near-impossible task.
Resigned to their fate, a lot of firms battled through by persuading their most experienced staff to work beyond retirement age in the hope that eventually, the tide would turn in their favour.
That day may well be here – finally!
This week has seen the launch of National Apprenticeship Week and the need to create a future generation of skilled workers has been at the head of the national agenda.
It is therefore pleasing to see that so many firms have reacted positively to the campaign and committed themselves to developing skills and giving many young people the opportunity to develop a career for themselves.
Jaguar Land Rover is recruiting a record number of new trainees, while fellow automotive firms BMW and Rolls-Royce have also backed the scheme.
Other big manufacturing firms are following suit, while even the much-maligned financial services sector has joined in, with Barclays announcing it will create 1,000 new apprenticeship places.
Hopefully this won’t be too late to save our manufacturing industry – one of the few wealth-creating sectors we have left.
However, while the approach of the big firms is to be welcomed, they won’t resolve the problem on their own.
If the SME sector is to lead Britain on the road to recovery, as the Government hopes it will, then more small firms have to follow the example of these big businesses and create similar opportunities – now, before it’s too late.
