Maintaining the trajectory for innovation and growth

20 February, 2023

Schofield explains that the BPMA doesn’t get directly involved in apprenticeships. “If you came into the pump industry and you wanted to be a pump fitter, for example, you would still take a mechanical engineering-based apprenticeship and learn about pumps externally. Our members then put their apprentices on our courses. We’ve looked at working with universities over the years but we’re not an NHS and only employ about 12,000 people in the UK. So, the pump industry isn’t really big enough for universities to take it on. However, it’s certainly something we’re developing. At the moment, our technical officer is in the process of finishing a variable speed drive course and last year we finished compiling a two-day maintenance and repair course – and there are more initiatives like that.”

Investment

Sands has seen significant investments being made by universities and colleges into facilities that can take trainees from the base engineering technologies up to advanced production lines incorporating many facets of digitalisation. He explains that these include technologies such as digital twins, robotics and artificial intelligence. “Whilst these are great investments, it is also clear that many establishments are struggling to recruit and retain skilled engineers and trainers for these technologies as they are also in high demand from industry,” he says.

Sands believes face-to-face training courses are still catching up with demand following the COVID lockdown restrictions. “In parallel, the time feels precisely right for blended training, combining online modules with hands-on workshops,” he says. “Festo launched an online training portal a couple of years ago. Since then, the site has been populated with 100s of modules, from individual training nuggets to complete learning paths. Training plans can be prepopulated, or individuals can pick their own development areas with topic areas reinforced with shorter, hands-on workshops led by an experienced trainer to answer questions and guide the small groups. This definitely feels like the way ahead and will be supplemented with Virtual Reality supported modules in the future.”

Mander points out that Ingersoll Rand has a comprehensive programme of training courses, delivered by experts from within the business for its own sales and service teams and distribution network. “It’s fair to say that COVID affected the delivery of some of these programmes, although we switched to online learning, which proved successful,” he says. “However, it is good to be back with faceto-face delivery of our product and service training with the teams.”

Wright reflects that whilst work has been done by BCAS to provide an apprenticeship for service engineers and there are plenty of engineering apprenticeships out there, the main thread for education is still down the academic path. “More needs to be done to encourage parents and students to take up courses that lead into the manufacturing sector,” he says. “A few years ago, University Technical Colleges (UTCs) seemed to be the coming thing, but their fashion seems to have waned. Equally, T Levels still seem to be the mystery they were on the first day they were mooted.”

Cuthbert reflects that we all still recognise the skills shortage in the industry and how difficult it is to fill vacancies including apprenticeships. “Many training initiatives are being driven by industry such as the nationwide Make UK’s ‘National Manufacturing Day’,” he says. “Webtec took part in this initiative, and we also actively support the Arkwright Scholarships, Primary Engineer Leaders Award. However, we still need