Time to raise the profile of engineering

We can extract many positives from WM's Outlook 2014 Survey with its overwhelmingly optimistic central message about better business prospects for the coming year. Nonetheless, it is vital that we continue to keep our feet firmly on the ground and remain pragmatic in the way we conduct business this year and beyond. For example, one of the issues that came out of the Outlook 2014 follow-up round table (see the article starting on page 23) is the need to boost skills within the workplace. I believe this is a big issue that has, so far, been only partially addressed. It will require significantly more input for us to train the engineers we will need to meet the growth in demand. But it also needs to be a joined-up endeavour rather than an individual effort on the part of government or business. A coherent overarching strategy should focus on engaging with young people as well as ensuring that their parents, teachers and career advisers are informed about the benefits a manufacturing career can bring to a youngster. Critical time for career choice The critical time for young people in terms of a career choice is when they select their subject options in secondary school. If they choose not to go down the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subject route, then they have very little chance of benefitting from a career in manufacturing subsequently. Personally, I think it makes good economic sense to get engineering and other basic manufacturing skills back onto the education curriculum so that youngsters receive an understanding of engineering and manufacturing to enable them to make an informed choice about whether to take that route. There is currently an unfortunate misconception among too many parents and careers advisers that equates engineering with motor mechanics and operating in a dirty, noisy environment. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but the result of this mistaken perception is that we are losing good people who are perfectly suited to a career in manufacturing. Engineering is a profession, not a trade, and it makes a vital contribution to UK plc. The trouble is that engineering is too little valued today, probably because of a misunderstanding about what it's actually all about. I would love to see us reclaim the word 'engineer' for people who are skilled and qualified rather than them being thought of as people who fix vacuum cleaners or washing machines. I think the trade bodies have a crucial part to play here, perhaps by launching a campaign to recover the word 'engineer' for those who have gone through the years of study and qualification to earn the title. Having said that, I believe there are positives too. For example, I think university technical colleges (UTCs) are a vital element in encouraging more people into engineering careers because they offer 14-18 year olds the opportunity to take full-time vocational, technically-oriented training in engineering skills. That has got to be the right way to go. Indeed, my own organisation has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the UK manufacturing sector by launching £1 million-a-year sponsorship of the Lloyds Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre (AMTC) at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. Trained apprentices will be registered with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and, upon graduation, they will receive formal recognition from the IMechE as engineering technicians. The AMTC is designed to help address the sector's skills gap in the UK and it will develop more than 1,000 engineering apprentices and trainees during the initial Lloyds Banking Group partnership. The building of the centre will begin this year and is scheduled to open in 2015. As a bank, our commitment to UK manufacturing has also involved listening to what British manufacturers want and that is why we have upskilled our managers through the training programme at the University of Warwick, giving them the knowledge and skills to be able to support UK manufacturers.