Plugging The Leaky Talent Pipeline : The skills gaps in the manufacturing sector are entrenched, well-documented and seemingly intractable. Equally, they should be underestimated. After endless chops and changes in government policy – an apprenticeship levy, new grading for GCSEs, T-Levels as an alternative to A-levels to name but a few, little seems to have changed. Our sector is still short of 59,000 engineering graduates and technicians each year, despite having close to 130,000 apprenticeship starts across the UK in academic year 2015/16. Starts which are incidentally falling since the apprenticeship levy was introduced. Simply tapping into the same talent pools has failed to fill the skills gaps historically is not going to produce the talents workers needed now, and increasingly manufacturers need to think outside the traditional talent box and find new ways to find the people and skills which seem so elusive.
Next year, Make UK’s national manufacturing conference on 25 February 2020 will lay the platform for manufacturers to do just this. Around 80% of the people that UK manufacturers need to train are already in the workforce. Inventively doing more with the current stock of skills, as well as adding to the stock, is key to bridging skills gaps, particularly at a time when the numbers of EU workers coming to the UK is tailing off – growing your own talent will become more important than ever. For a variety of reasons, we will all be working longer, and retaining workers longer, and adding to their skills, is another key component that our manufacturing conference will unpick.
Finally, with just 8% of young apprentices being girls, and only 16% of engineering places at University being filled by women, there is a need to show off the best that manufacturing careers can offer – from working with exciting new technology, to creative design roles, our sector offers flexible and rewarding opportunities that are often more associated with IT and the creative industries.
The Make UK National Manufacturing Conference in London will showcase what all manufacturers can offer and where and how to look for talent that may already be right in front of them.
Join the ‘Tackling the Talent Pipeline’ workshop and learn how to:
· Find the untapped labour markets.
· Get more skilled workers for the same/less amount of effort.
· Reboot the skills of your mid career workers.
· Regulate retirement by tackling the tricky questions and transferring knowledge
Tickets can be purchased at www.manufacturingconference.co.uk
CREDIT: Project Discussion, taken by Nicola Irvine at Bournemouth & Poole College in Bournemouth. Winner in the Young Next Generation category of the EEF Photography Competition 2018
Manufacturing & Engineering Magazine | The Home of Manufacturing Industry News