RICHARD SHAW OF GREENBROOK INTERVIEW
Do you see the industry as an attractive one to join for school and college leavers? Yes, I absolutely do. There are great opportunities and this is an exciting time to become part of a potentially dynamic sector. Unfortunately, the industry doesn’t always do the best job of promoting itself to the outside world. What’s more, the young talent the sector needs is not necessarily university educated, academically talented high achievers but ambitious youngsters with good technical understanding. So often the talent that the industry needs is not available and the opportunities that are on offer are not suited to graduates that have gone down the conventional academic route. To address this we need good vocational courses and skills training. Youngsters need to be inspired and to know that if they learn skills then they can add value to our economy and good people will be a catalyst for innovation and embracing change. We should remember too, that developments in our industry also rely on skills from other sectors. LEDs, for example, are an important technology that’s ripe for development and this originally came from the computer industry, not our own. So ideally what we need to do is ensure that technical careers of all kinds are attractive and accessible and then encourage inter- sector collaboration and out of the box thinking to drive innovation.
How do you view the current state of industry apprenticeship schemes? Thanks to the efforts of the EDA and the ECA it is certainly improving. It is very encouraging to see that recent research has revealed that retraining as an electrician emerged as the fourth most popular choice nationwide, demonstrating that people do really value vocational training courses. We must continue to promote these schemes so that they are seen as viable alternatives to going to university.
Will the government’s decision to raise tuition fees encourage more young people to take up apprenticeships in the electrical industry? We can only speculate on that but my guess would be that it will certainly prompt school leavers to consider a wider range of routes into a career rather than simply going to university because it’s expected of them. Any kind of education should have a goal and, at a time when a university education is an expensive undertaking with no guarantees of earning potential at the end of it, a route into a career that offers an income during training and a recognised career path once qualified will clearly be very attractive to some.
The decline of manufacturing and
proliferation of university degrees has seen a decline in the number of apprenticeships available and the number of school leavers considering this option over the past 20 to 30 years. But I’m delighted to see a renewed emphasis on skills and vocational training as we need that if we are to be self-sufficient as a country.
Should the industry be more carefully regulated to insure high standards? What can be done to further highlight the importance of quality training? The emphasis on standards has been eroded over the past decade to the point where some people don’t have even a basic understanding of electrical standards. Whilst this is being addressed by industry bodies, such as BEAMA, the EDA and the ECA, there are still too many companies who operate outside of these associations who contribute very little to the development and improvement of standards within the industry. Personally, I strongly believe that continuous improvement leads to better standards, and I’ve always adopted this as a strategy for every business I’ve been involved with. To improve standards across the industry we need every company to put those values at the heart of their operations. Regulation can help, but policing the standard is the difficult bit so what’s really needed is a culture change. I think that culture change can come about if the importance of maintaining high standards is inherent in training so that young people coming into the industry prioritise a quality approach. After all, it is they who will be influencing how the sector develops in the future.
How far can the 2012 London Olympics go to show that the UK’s electrical industry is one of the healthiest in the world? Holding the Olympics in London is a great thing for the country on a number of levels and for the electrical industry it has provided jobs and an opportunity to shine. However, this positive impetus for the electrical sector has been centred around London. Let’s not forget the rest of the country where they haven’t benefited from this level of investment
or the opportunities it brings. Some of our great towns, cities and regions are still in need of regeneration and we must ensure that they have the skills available to attract their fair share of investment in the future.
Will the ongoing commitment to green technology become a help or a hindrance to the industry in the long term? Green technology provides a great opportunity to innovate and provide market focused solutions but the electrical sector in the UK has lost ground to other countries where they have actually got on with the job of developing greener technologies instead of agonising about how to embrace them like we do. On a recent trip to Germany, for example, I saw that they already have a national infrastructure in place for microgeneration using photovoltaic technology and wind power. It’s absolutely everywhere and they are already reaping the benefits. We need to spend less time worrying about whether green technology is viable or definitive and just get on with using it!
What can be done to make customers more aware of the energy savings that can be derived from better lighting and control systems? UK companies like GreenBrook that still design and manufacture their own products are doing a lot already to highlight the benefits of energy saving lighting but there are few of us left and, increasingly, buying decisions are made purely on price rather than environmental performance or whole life costs. It’s important to keep things in context and look at the bigger picture too. Much is made of the financial savings
that can be made by having better light controls but they’re actually a drop in the ocean compared to the savings and environmental benefits of generating your own electricity from a free source such as photovoltaics. It’s also vital to remember that cost and environmental issues are not the only hot topics of the day. We should also be promoting more awareness of electrical safety as the Electrical Safety Council is trying to do with its RCD campaign.
How much of a surprise to you was the media backlash, particularly in the tabloids, towards the phasing out of incandescent lightbulbs? What is your view towards people who have taken the choice to try and ‘hoard’ traditional bulbs? There is a section of the media that likes to champion ‘Merry Old England’ and will always campaign to keep it intact – even if that means holding on to old technology that has been improved and is past its sell by date. So I wasn’t really surprised by the media backlash, even though I am saddened that some sections of the press are so eager to halt change, even when that change represents progress in its truest sense. In response, the electrical industry needs to be of one voice and assert its authority with lobbying and proactive marketing to create much more awareness and understanding of the issues involved. The message needs to be consistent and long term and it must be championed by government. Only then can we aim to get the public onboard and demonstrate the long term financial and environmental benefits of the phase out and that will take the focus away from the negative press and increased purchase price.
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