The Metals, Electrical Equipment and Mechanical
Equipment (MME) Sector Skills
Agreement
This entire Sector Skills Agreement process
has been led by industry and facilitated by Semta. The skills
demand signals articulated in the attached reports are an output of
extensive work over an 18 month period. The excellent work
undertaken by the Sector Strategy Group has produced Action Plans
which have been tested and challenged by a series of UK wide
consultation events in order to calibrate the results and acquire
sector and stakeholder buy in/support. The journey is by no
means over; in fact this is just the beginning as we now need to
focus on implementation, arguably the most challenging part of the
process. It is also important to recognise that the SSA is not cast
in stone, as Semta will constantly review the information
as employers and stakeholders make their contributions to the
process.
The SSA has resulted in the following headline
findings, further information can be obtained from the draft
versions of the published documents below:
- 94% of sites employ fewer than 50 people, but they account for
nearly half of all MME jobs and form the supply chain of many
larger companies in non MME sectors.
- Demographic profile of the MME sector does not follow that of
the economy as a whole with the average MME worker being white,
male, aged 42 and working full time.
- Nearly a fifth of MME sites had hard to fill vacancies
due to a highly competitive labour market leading to an overall
shortage of engineers.
- 90% of hard to fill vacancies accounted for by Craft, Operator,
Technician and Professional levels.
- The impact of these 13,000 hard to fill vacancies in the MME
sector is a loss of nearly over £570 million to UK GVA.
- Lack of applicants with required qualifications and skills, a
lack of applicants with required work experience and a general lack
of applicants.
- 20% of MME sites had skills gaps in the current workforce
ranging from 18% of micro sites to 43% of large sites.
- 70% of those with skills gaps had technical engineering skills
gaps, particularly in relation to Professional Engineering,
Technician, Craft and Operator occupations.
- Management skills gaps – many SMEs, in particular, do not have
a business or training plan, do not expect skills to change over
the next 3 years, and are unable to articulate future skills
needs.
- 22% of all UK MME sites employed apprentices or recognised.
trainees, varying from 59% of large sites, 40% of medium sized
sites, 27% of small sites and only 7% of micro sites.
The four key themes emerging from the Stage 3 Gap analysis are
as follows
- Key Theme 1: Leadership and Management
- Key Theme 2: Process Improvement (Productivity and
Competitiveness)
- Key Theme 3: Technical Skills
- Key Theme 4: Apprenticeships
Semta 6 Stage Model
To help evaluate the stage of workforce skills
development within businesses in the MME sectors, the MME Sector
Strategy Group, in consultation with training providers, developed
a model to categorise the evidence of typical training activity
that could reliably be obtained from a telephone questionnaire
survey. Initially, this was a five stage model but
following the outcomes from the stage five report and review
of the five stage model process, future participation will engage
in a six level process.
The 5 Stage Model Report can be dowloaded
here
The 6 Stage Model can be downloaded
here
If you would like to participate in the 6 Stage
Model programme then please send an email to 6stagemodel@semta.org.uk
By registering your interest in this process, Semta will be able to
contact you to establish how we might work with you to offer
support for your employee and business development.
Stage 5 Report and Action Plans for the
UK
Click to download the full
UK Stage 5 Report
This important document has been successfully
developed over a two year period by the Metals, Mechanical
Electrical (MME) Sector Strategy Group (SSG), an employer-led group
which has championed the development of the Sector Skills Agreement
process on behalf of the sector.
The report summarises the research findings
and analysis carried out with employers throughout the process that
has led to the identification of priority themes for action and
plans that identify scope for collaborative development with
employers and stakeholders.
In May 2008 Semta agreed a £65M package of
Train 2 Gain (T2G) funding with DIUS and the LSC to help engage
hard to reach companies not already participating in the T2G offer.
It is recognised that funding available through the Sector
Compact is England only, however, Semta will be looking to develop
similar support mechanism’s across the UK in discussion with
strategic regional and national partners.
The compact will support the following skills
areas which are identified as priorities for Action
in the MME SSA:
- Management and Leadership grants for a key
Director of companies that employ 10 –
250
employees
- First NVQ Level 2 and a second Level 2 NVQ of Business
Improvement Technique (B-IT)
- First NVQ Level 3 and a second Level 3 NVQ of B-IT
- All age apprenticeship 25+ to be funded at the 19+ rate
- In the second year 09/10 the Compact will offer funding for
Level 4 qualifications
- Skills for Life programmes (inc. literacy and numeracy).
Semta will provide support to SMEs to complete
a Business to Skills plan or a Strategic Workforce Development Plan
to create a sustainable model of investment in skills linked to a
measurable business improvement for the company.
If you are an employer interested in finding
out more about accessing expertise and support from Semta to
develop a Business to Skills Plan or strategic Workforce
Development Plan please contact customerservices@semta.org.uk
or dvinall@semta.org.uk
for further details.
UK Reports:
Stage 1 Skill Needs
Analysis
Executive
Summary
Full
UK Stage 1 Report
Stage 2 Assessment of Current Provision
Executive
Summary
UK stage
2 Report Part 1
UK
stage 2 Report Part 2
Stage 3 Gap Analysis
Full
UK stage 3 Report and draft action plan
Scotland Reports:
The Scotland Stages 1, 2 and 3
executive summaries, full documents and draft action plan are
available for download by clicking this link:
Scotland SSA
documents.
Wales Reports:
The Wales Stages 1, 2 and 3 executive summaries,
full documents and draft action plan are available for download by
clicking this link:
Wales SSA
documents.
Northern Ireland
Reports:
The Northern Ireland
Stages 1, 2 and 3 executive summaries, full documents and draft
action plan are available for download by clicking this
link:
Northern Ireland
documents.
England Reports:
The England
Stages 1, 2 and 3 executive summaries, full documents and draft
action plan are available for download by clicking this
link:
England
documents.
England Regional Reports:
The England regional Stages 1 and 2 full
documents are available for download by clicking these
links:
England
regional documents.
North
West
North
East
Yorkshire &
The Humber
West
Midlands
East
Midlands
South
West
South
East
London
East of
England
2006/7 Labour Market Survey of GB Engineering Sectors
This report is the initial result of 5129 employer interviews
conducted by telephone between December 2006 and February 2007. It
contains data to provide a GB wide picture of employment in the
Engineering Sectors and provide an informed overview of labour
market issues with particular focus on recruitment, skills and
training. Download HERE
Sector Skills Agreements Highlights Spring
2008
The Highlights brochure features four of our key employers who
are leading the way within their sector networks to demonstrate the
productivity and performance improvements possible through
investment in skills. In addition it outlines the contributions
made by our partners and tracks progress towards achieving our key
aims of:
- optimising employer and public investment in skills
- securing public funding for priorities identified in the
SSA
Download from link below:
Metals, Mechanical and
Electrical Highlights - Spring 2008