Make UK launches Industrial Strategy Skills Commission

20 November, 2024

It is this skilled workforce pipeline which will be critical to the success of the new Industrial Strategy to drive growth and digital transformation in manufacturing over the next few years.

Co-chaired by former Minster for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education Robert Halfon and former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest, the Industrial Strategy Skills Commission will identify key priorities that Government must address to support vital skills creation, while highlighting emerging issues so industry and Government can respond effectively. The Commissioners will be supported by an advisory group of leading education experts, industry experts and policy makers.

Commission members:

• Co-chair – Robert Halfon, former Minister of State for Apprenticeships at the Department for Education

• Co-chair - Tom Watson, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest

• Kevin Fitzpatrick CBE, former Senior Vice President for Manufacturing and supply Chain Management Europe, Nissan Motor Corporation

• Sian Elliott, Head of Organising, Service and Skills, TUC

• Fiona Aldridge, CEO, Skills Federation

• Dame Judith Hackitt DBE FREng, chemical engineer, former Chair of HSE and currently Interim Chair of the Office for Nuclear Regulation

• Dr John Neill CBE, former Executive Chairman Unipart

Advisory Board:

• Ann Watson, CEO Enginuity, charity focusing on closing skills gap across manufacturing and engineering

• Stephen Evans, CEO, Learning and Work Institute

• Dr Hilary Leevers, CEO, EngineeringUK

• Neil Carberry, CEO, Recruitment and Employment Confederation

• Yiannis Koursis OBE, CEO, Bedford College

• Rowan Crozier, CEO of Birmingham-based metal stamping and precision toolmaking specialist Brandauer

• Simon Connell, CEO, Baker Dearing Educational Trust - supporting 44 Technical Colleges across England

• Professor Liz Mossop, Vice-Chancellor, Sheffield Hallam University

• Ben Rowland, CEO, Association of Employment and Learning Providers

• Clare Porter, Director for Strategic Engagement, Workforce and Skills, High Value Manufacturing Catapult and former Head of Manufacturing Policy and the Department for Business and Trade

• Brian Holliday, member of the Executive Management Board of Siemens plc, Chairman of Siemens Digital Industries and Chairman of Siemens Industry Software UK

• Philip. Bouverat, Director , JCB

Manufacturers are still struggling to recruit with some 58,000 unfilled live vacancies, while the talent pipeline continues to decline at an alarming rate. Apprentice starts are down 42% since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced seven years ago and T-levels, designed to deliver much-needed technical skills into industry, still do not have the required uptake to make a meaningful difference.