£21m skills gap in Northern Ireland’s engineering sector to be
plugged by Skills Academy
A new report unveiled today shows a
shortage of skills in Northern Ireland’s engineering industry which
costs the local economy £21m a year.
Semta - the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and
Manufacturing Technologies - today publishes its first ever Skills
Balance Sheet for Northern Ireland, funded by the Department for
Education and Learning. This reviews the demand for skills from
employers, the available supply of education, and training and any
key gaps and mismatches. Its key findings state:
- There is an urgent need to provide skills training for over
14,000 employees in the sector, to address a skills gap across
management and core technical staff
- This skills gap in Northern Ireland’s engineering sector costs
its economy £21m a year
- 23% of companies believe they have a skills gap
- The average GVA* per employee for the Engineering industry in
Northern Ireland was £40,000 in 2005, significantly higher than the
figure of £33,000 for all sectors of the economy in Northern
Ireland.
- There were an estimated 535 hard-to-fill vacancies within
Engineering establishments in Northern Ireland
- Between 2008 and 2014, 8,000 skilled new jobs need to be
created to replace workers leaving the industry due to retirement
or other reasons.
- 13% of employees have no qualifications
*GVA = Gross Value Added to Northern Irish economy
This skills gap will be addressed through the successful
partnership of Semta, Engineering Training Council Northern Ireland
(ETC NI) and the National Skills Academy for Manufacturing, which
has just launched its office in Northern Ireland. The National
Skills Academy for Manufacturing was set up as part of ETC NI to
address the issues raised in the Sector Skills Agreement (SSA).
This called for a focus on demand-led skills (skills and training
programmes developed in-line with the requirements of manufacturing
employers) and a less confusing training market that offered clear
pathways to world class skills that could boost the UK economy.
Semta and ETC NI will help employers in Northern Ireland to fix
these problems through the Skills Academy. It will work with
employers to select the best training to maximise returns and
ensure the business benefits of world-class skills are sustained
long after the training has been completed. It will help training
providers by validating them against industry-recognised levels of
competence and has already trained and validated those at all six
of Northern Ireland’s further education colleges. It will also
offer support for employees, helping them prepare for, undertake,
and sustain the personal and business benefits of training long
after courses have ended.
Lynn Tomkins, UK Policy Director of Semta, said:
“Engineering employers in Northern Ireland need to meet the
challenge of staying competitive in tough market conditions by
improving competitiveness and productivity. This can be achieved by
developing training plans and investing in their employees as the
proven path to improving the business bottom line. Semta welcomes
the opportunity to work with the new Skills Academy to deliver the
skills and training employers in Northern Ireland are crying out
for. We intend not only to create opportunities for these employers
and their employees to improve their prospects, but also to boost
the economic well-being of the region.”
Bob Gibbon, Managing Director at the Skills Academy, said:
“By working closely with Semta, the Engineering Training
Council, the Assembly, the Department for Employment and Learning
and Invest Northern Ireland we aim to make a significant
contribution to the health and wealth of Northern Ireland’s
manufacturing industry. Underpinning this we have already supported
the development of training providers in Northern Ireland’s further
education colleges, ensuring they have the advanced skills to
deliver the right training and are validated against
industry-recognised levels of competence. We will now turn our
focus to working with employers to identify and implement the
programmes they need to plug the skills gaps in their workforce and
deliver real business benefits.”
The Full Skills Balance Sheet will be available from research@semta.org.uk.
For press information on the National Skills Academy for
Manufacturing: Joe Meaney, joe@proofcommunication.com, 0845 680
1864
For press information on Semta: Findlay Robertson,
FindlayR@consol.co.uk, 020 7781 2381