Higher level apprenticeships are critical

The manufacturing sector in the UK is facing a skills crisis, with a shrinking population of skilled professionals making senior positions increasingly difficult to fill and fewer skilled young people entering the industry than experienced retirees leaving it. As the economy has settled down following the major disruption caused by the downturn, many of our clients have carried out analyses of their workforces in order to understand what their skills base will look like in the years ahead. Unsurprisingly, in most cases this is confirming a worrying impending shortage of higher level skills as ageing employees reach retirement age. Contrary to popular belief, the big problem is not with academic qualifications – graduates in many engineering disciplines are actually finding it difficult to get a first job – but with candidates with the specific industry skills to roll up their sleeves and be productive, without the need for intensive training. These skills are difficult – many would say impossible – to teach in the classroom. Against the current economic backdrop, there is an understandable reluctance for some employers to invest in training up raw graduates with the risk that they will quickly leave and join a competitor who has not had to bear the expense. In the absence of a significant upswing in the market, it is difficult to see what will persuade companies to put their heads above the parapet and be the first to put capital into this kind of training – although those who do will put themselves at an advantage as they will get the best talent now. Clearly, the answer lies in external support in the form of government-subsidised apprenticeships. In recent years, the overall statistics on apprenticeships have been heading in the right direction, with a 14% increase in starts from 2010/11 to 2011/12. However, in engineering and manufacturing disciplines, the number of advanced apprenticeships is still significantly below 2007/08 levels. Sadly, too many SME owners looking to take on apprenticeships today are put off by the complexity of the process, with its confusing multitude of different frameworks. The solution the EEF is calling for – and which we at JAM agree with – is a single industry standard for apprenticeships which is easy for employers to understand and access and which puts a real emphasis on higher level skills.