14 manufacturing roundtable ... continued from previous page


manufacturing processes. Whereas the modern technological manufacturing companies tended not to be so traditionally or generationally linked.


Reid: “We are working with the STEM organisation and parents and teachers trying to encourage children from a young age into manufacturing. McLaren Applied Technologies also takes on 15 work-experience students every year with a new initiative for 2016 where we invite back previous work experience students for learning days across the business to maintain the contact.”


Jolly said he understood that the Government was removing work experience time from the national school curriculum. “I find that unbelievable.”


with the schools and colleges, and then that pays back so much in terms of the talent pipeline into the business or organisation.”


Location also mattered, said Sachpekidis. Moog had struggled to get apprentices for one plant, but not for others, he noted.


Walker: “We see real difference between the quality of different cities in providing solid support for getting apprentices into businesses, to the extent that we (Taylor Made) will have taken on six apprentices this year in both business and technical roles.”


... and where are the women?


The other recruitment issue was the lack of women, and the manufacturing gender imbalance when compared to the population. “The proportion of ladies going into manufacturing is woeful, so as a profession we are losing out. Trying to encourage people away from the ‘boys build, girls sew’ stereotype is vital. That’s an absolutely ridiculous view in this day and age,” said Lane.


Jolly noted that Cranfield has got government support for a well-funded post-graduate engineering doctorate course in Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing, “Finding UK home students is really hard, however I do have six on my books now and 50% are female. I think it’s the ‘sustainable’ aspect that has attracted the women.”


Paul Goodman


Lane revealed that Xtrac had worked closely with local schools and Newbury College for many years, and took in work-experience students and apprentices every year. “We have a pipeline of talent coming through at apprentice and undergraduate level with students coming in for summer placements, which can lead to jobs when they graduate. Additionally we will sponsor our people for further degrees such as Masters and PhDs – to us training is critical.


“We are extremely cognisant of the responsibility we have both to our business and the local community.


“We recently had over a 100 people applying for our apprenticeships – an extremely high but fantastic demand that reflects the desire of local young people to join Xtrac. We see a really strong talent pipeline coming through but that’s not to say that there are not problems with low numbers of engineering candidates overall in the country. I think there is a shortage of engineers across the whole economy, although some of the Government initiatives to encourage more people to see the career opportunities within the manufacturing sector should be applauded.


“The key thing is creating that partnership www.businessmag.co.uk


Sachpekidis said the type of manufacturing mattered. His company supplied parts ranging from large electrical actuators for the Wimbledon roof to pencil-size high- performance hydraulics for F1 racecars. In some work areas Moog employed more women than men, although women were vastly outnumbered in the overall workforce.


Reid mentioned that Caroline Hargrove, McLaren Applied Technologies technical director, had done a number of interviews, videos, and schools initiatives to help tackle the industry skills shortage and the gender imbalance.


Arnott made the point that she was the lone woman around the Southern Manufacturing 100 roundtable and stated she understood the number of women in the manufacturing labour force was only around 24%; providing a great opportunity to help address the skills shortage if enough women could be attracted into the sector.


An unsung (and commonly misrepresented) hero


Arnott: “We need to get rid of the preconceptions about what British manufacturing today really is, and we need to do that with boys and girls from a very early age, through their parents and teachers. Otherwise at some stage in the education systems they will get pushed, subconsciously no doubt, to do slightly different things. Choices are made at infant


Tim Walker


and junior school that set children up for their life. It’s often too late to choose at university.”


Jolly said his son, at infant school, was actively discouraged from pursuing his personal interest in building things, by being called into class activities instead.


Arnott: “There are a lot more manufacturing opportunities out there nowadays and people are just not aware of it.”


Lane: “No longer do we have woollen mills in northern England that are just sweatshops. We now have really high-end precision engineering and technology that leads the way. Some of the people coming out of our universities are the best in the world at what they do, and they make a huge impact to this country’s economy, with manufacturing still providing 12% of GDP.


Wadsworth suggested manufacturers should offer schools a career-based, curriculum-linked initiative to highlight their sector – helping the teachers to teach the true manufacturing story.


Jones felt the sector had an image problem. Manufacturing was such a diverse sector and a difficult word to define, particularly for the younger generation.


Goodman said both sides needed to learn. Businessmen today probably didn’t know all that schools could offer, and many younger teachers today, coming through the education but not business environment, were not aware of the modern manufacturing world.


In the IT sector, the big vendors such as Microsoft support accredited skills training, Walker mentioned. He wondered if something similar could happen within manufacturing.


“The vendors have clearly got a vested interest, but why shouldn’t they? They are investing in supporting people coming in and training them in core technologies that the vast proportion of UK businesses will be running. That’s been a hugely successful programme, bringing people in, and keeping them within the industry.”


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2015


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