When it comes to recruitment, I have always employed people based on their attitude over their skills. You can teach someone to weld or solder or whatever, but you can’t teach people how to be on time, how to interact with other colleagues, and that sort of thing.
For us to remain competitive as a business we have to embrace new technologies but, right now, I don’t know where to look. I need somebody that knows about manufacturing, who also knows about AI and can also do some productivity stuff as well. I am part of the Manufacturers Alliance, but that is more a product company rather than a service company. My biggest pain point is that I am probably the only tech savvy person in the company, and I am not very techy. I’ve only just got an iPhone.
Kate Houlden Like Technologies
Things have to change and things have to move on. But we do have quite a lot of facilities in this area and there are businesses that are not just pure manufacturing businesses.
They may be product businesses or service businesses that are looking for the services of manufacturers. It’s not just thinking about the manufacturers themselves, it’s also thinking about all of those supply chains that sit behind it.
As a company we have been working on masterclasses in terms of curriculum and
education projects, including sessions for colleges. What we are starting, as well as T-level placements, is to get some of the tutors from colleges in the north of Lancashire out to some of these SMEs because they don’t actually keep abreast of what these SMEs are doing, and what they can offer.
T levels are a good example of where people that are just as capable as A level students can take on a more practical qualification. My experience is that we have taken students in terms of placements and we have seen some outstanding people come through that route and, when they have finished college and passed the qualification, they have then actually come to us wanting to do a degree apprenticeship.
This is not a second class citizen in terms of education, this is something that is a good route for somebody that wants something slightly different to A-levels but it still can lead on to university if that is what the student and the business wants.
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T levels are a good example of where people
Sara Gaskell Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub
One of the things we need to be mindful of is around automation and AI, and how we get that message out to feed future talent pipelines. We need to be making sure businesses are more involved in the design and development of curriculums and are getting involved with schools and colleges to support young people so they have that throughput of talent to make them effective in the future.
There is a massive ask on businesses across the whole of the education and skills sector and that is a difficult balance. The likes of Blackburn College have their business boards
that are just as capable as A-level students can take on a more practical qualification
and they bring businesses around the table, which is a fabulous idea. The Department for Work and Pensions now delivers skills boot camps but unless businesses tell us what they want it’s very difficult to use that funding for the most appropriate thing. So for us it’s a collaboration between business and education informing future skills needs.
We work alongside the Lancashire Careers Hub which works across schools, special schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) in Lancashire. They then work with more than 200 business
volunteers to get real work experience and information. It is sometimes difficult because businesses are busy, but we need to get business information into schools so young people can make those informed choices.
Part of the issue is that businesses may want to get involved with skills but don’t know how to do it. They might want to get involved with T-levels but they don’t know how to do it and a few years ago now, we designed the Lancashire Skills Pledge, which is one front door for businesses to find out about the skills initiatives.
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