BUSINESS NEWS BUSINESS NEWS
Manufacturing the city’s future
BY JOHN LAMB Y
ou could be forgiven for thinking that Steve Brittan has oil, not blood, running through his veins. The next president of Birmingham Chamber is no more at home than when he is talking about his favourite subject – British engineering.
On 8 November, at the Chamber’s annual meeting, the managing
director of BSA Machine Tools, will succeed Michael Ward as president, and two new vice-presidents will be named. He will use his year in office to pursue several policy issues. As well as cutting the burden of business red tape, he wants to ease access to finance, which he believes is stopping growth. He says: “Between contract and delivery can take six to 12 months, so we need and always used to get, working capital to finance the time from deposit to final payment. “This is bog standard, non-risky everyday lending. But it is now difficult
to get that or the bank’s letters of credit that were once no problem. Times have changed but if SMEs in this country are going to survive, financing must be made easier.” He also wants to up the skills agenda in an area where they have been on the decline, and continue improving attitudes towards getting youngsters to take up apprenticeships. Mr Brittan’s first and foremost passion is engineering, and he is launching a campaign during his year of office to ensure that the title ‘engineer’ becomes recognised in a similar way to the professions, like lawyers and doctors. He says: “The title of engineer needs to be lifted up there with the top
trades and professions, like it is in Germany. The person who comes to fix your washing machine is not an engineer. “We need to relate the work of an engineer to today’s lifestyle, not ending with smoke stacks like the opening ceremony at the Olympics did. It takes an engineer and a technician to make everything, from thimbles, to mobile phones to ocean-going liners. “Engineers put men on the moon and more recently landed an exploratory device on Mars. Everything around us needs to be designed, built and tested, and it is highly qualified engineers and technicians who do that work. And it’s important to distinguish between engineers and technicians. “A new, more highly skilled generation of engineers has emerged to
move on the skills of an older age. It takes time to create an engineer – a five-year apprenticeship and at last three years experience is essential. “We need experts in CAD (Computer Aided Design) to make best use of the machines that can design and manufacture the needs of society today. “We must study the German model. The quality of their engineering is among the best in the world, because engineers are right up there with the top professions. “Rolls Royce and Jaguar Land Rover are world class in their field but we
struggle in other areas, where progress is held back by the Victorian infrastructure we are using, like on the railways. “There are several levels of apprenticeships culminating in the top of the
profession, where graduates can take this country forward and compete with the very best in Germany, Japan and the US.”
6 CHAMBERLINK OCTOBER 2012 LATEST NEWS FROM BIRMINGHAM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE GROUP
‘We need to relate the work of an engineer to today’s lifestyle, not ending with smoke stacks like the opening ceremony at the Olympics did’
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