DEBATE SKILLS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
ON THE FRONT LINE IN THE RECRUITMENT BATTLE PRESENT: Richard Slater Lancashire Business View (chair)
Neil Burrows Burnley College
Melissa Conlon AMRC
David Gregson Lancaster University
Sophie Harker BAE Systems
Michele Lawty-Jones Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub
Ian Muldowney BAE Systems Andy Schofield
North West Aerospace Alliance Andy Walker
Lancashire County Council
Annette Weekes PDS CNC Engineering
We brought our experts to BAE Systems’ Academy for Skills and Knowledge (ASK) at Samlesbury to talk about the growing skills issues facing aerospace and the wider manufacturing sector in Lancashire and what is needed to ensure these vital industries have the workforce they need to meet the challenges ahead
Ian Muldowney, chief operating officer, BAE Systems Air
The broad skills we require are not just around the traditional sets we’ve always employed. We still need people to design, manufacture and support aircraft. However, we’re seeing the blending of skills more and more.
We’ve got a ‘war on skills’ and ‘war on talent’. If you look at the traditional skills around mechanical and systems engineering, electrical engineering, they are being targeted by fintech and the insurance sector. Non-traditional sectors are going after those deep engineering skills coming out of universities, colleges and schools.
Just to stand still I’ve got to recruit 1,000 people this year. We’ve got the Future Combat Air System to go after but how do we get that multi-pathway of skills and talent?
We don’t work without the supply chain and the ecosystem. We’ve got to all pull together. If we’re going to go and deliver a sixth-generation combat air system out of the North West, we can’t do that alone.
Lancashire has got to be the STEM-based economy of the UK and if we can get that right, aerospace and defence looks after itself.
Annette Weekes, managing director, PDS CNC Engineering
There’s always been competitive pressure and the draw of people up the supply chain, whether from BAE Systems or Airbus. It is a nightmare recruiting, with people taking staff from each other.
We need to turn this around and invest in kids at a younger age with enthusiasm, there is no point getting to them at 16. We need to be in primary schools, we need to be engaging with secondary schools.
We have got to be all over this because we are now going to be competing with National Cyber Force (NCF) which is coming and with it all that demand from cyber and digital.
Kids attracted to STEM careers that would have instinctively come into engineering are going to be drawn into cyber, so how do we stop that?
It’s about generating an ecosystem and pulling together. We need to work together to generate people’s interest in coming into our industries, and not just aerospace.
You can enthuse the kids with the jet fighters and the exciting stuff. In terms of hitting the parents, there isn’t anything stronger than debt-free degrees. Come and be an apprentice, get your degree and don’t carry a load of debt.
LANCASHIREBUSINESSVIEW.CO.UK
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