Dave Campbell, BWF Marketing and Training Manager
It was an event with the government heavy-weights showing their support for the manufacturing sector, but will the latest government Manufacturing Summit lead to a shift to manufacturing in the UK?
At the Bristol & Bath Science Park on Thursday 23rd February, the Manufacturing Summit held by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, certainly proclaimed a desire to see a shift to rebalance our economy to greater manufacturing output.
The Summit’s keynote speech came form the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, and the Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable, led much of the discussion with the help of most of the BIS ministerial team.
They reported how they had helped all business over the last 12 months through £1bn regional growth fund, which in itself has stimulated £7bn of private investment and 330,000 new jobs.
They have moved to a focus on innovation, with innovation centres, like the centre where the summit was held, and the Manufacturing Advisory Service has been modernised. You can view a video round up of government successes on manufacturing here.
In a recent poll of 11-12 year olds, none said they wanted to go into manufacturing – the government is working with industry to hold STEM events and its “Inspiring the Future” programme to get people excited about manufacturing again.
The figures, programmes and initiatives all sound impressive, but have they, and indeed will they, make a difference to our industry? Much of the promotion of manufacturing focuses on the motor industry and aerospace – but they are just a small part of UK manufacturing. What we need to see from government is support for the hidden manufacturing industries – I know we’d love their focus to be on joinery manufacture!
What must happen is for the campaign and support from government to continue – being in “the flavour of the month” situation will not allow the sector time to adapt and continue to attract new talent. Their has to be a belief in the wider population that manufacturing is back in Britain and will only grow – no one want to enter a sector that is set for future decline.
University Technical Colleges
We were split into workshops later in the day, and I attended the first on University Technical Colleges (UTCs). This is the latest edition to the 14+ education system, where there is a real focus on practical learning.
From my assessment, they have the potential to be excellent institutions, supporting a learning approach is hands-on rather than academic – yet all the key subject areas are covered.
Under 16s will see a 60:40 split between general and technical learning and for the over 16s a 40:60 split respectively. Students will study English, Maths, Science, a foreign language and a humanities subject at GCSE level, but applied to real-life (where possible) situations in the working world. They then choose a specialisation in their “bridging subjects” which will provide skills prepping them for industry. It’s also interesting to note that they will be required to attend the UTC for 37.5hrs a week – getting them into a working routine after feedback from employers about young people’s work ethic.
UTCs are sponsored by an established university and by employers – JCB is one such manufacturing company involved with a UTC. This approach means the curriculum is shaped (continuously) by employers not academics.
This is great progress, but the challenge will be getting people to leave the normal school system at 14 – UTCs will need to be portrayed as equal institutions to the traditional system for standards. Furthermore, the traditional schooling system will still be in the majority – the key will be to use the lessons learned from the UTC programme and feed this into standard secondary schools.
Promoting Manufacturing
The second workshop focussed on promoting construction, which has been fronted by the “Make it in Great Britain” campaign. Passions were high in the room surrounding training and the lack of aspiration to enter the manufacturing sectors.
The Food and Drink Industry has been at the forefront of this campaign with a vision to grow the sector by 20% by 2020. To do this, their campaign focussed around careers and engaging with year 9 students, and utilised a digital campaign to reach this ‘hard to reach’ age group.
The campaign looked good and they are certainly leading the way in manufacturing as a whole. We’ll be stepping up this year to promote joinery in a way not done by the construction-related industries before, and I hope to pull in some of the lessons from this campaign.
As the discussion developed it was clear that there was a mammoth task ahead – yes, we need to reach students, but manufacturing needs to shake the view held by the parents and teachers of students that it is a grubby, low-paid, second-class career pathway – second to careers opening up after university study. This is our opportunity to get the calibre of entrants we need, while apprenticeships are the focus of government and university fees putting off students.
The BWF’s campaign is on its way – I hope you’ll all be behind us.
