North East engineering firm warns of skills deficit
A North East project management and
engineering design consultancy is helping to highlight the impact
of skill shortages within the industry.
K Home International based in Thornaby, which also has offices
in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Trinidad and Tobago, has warned that in
order to remain competitive, the North East and UK as a whole need
more fully qualified designers and engineers. In particular civil,
structural, mechanical and electrical disciplines are being hardest
hit because of a lack of trained people with the right skills.
The company, which employs 250 people in the North East and has
a 34 year history, boasts a customer base which stretches as far a
field Europe, Middle East, Australia and America.
Yet K Home director Peter Kay knows that to maintain its
worldwide reputation the company has to have employees who are more
than capable of doing the job. He explains:
“Teesside in particular has always been seen as a worldwide
centre of engineering excellence. Yet despite some first class
training programmes and a lot of good work taking place out there,
it is perhaps only now that the industry is feeling the real
effects of an under-investment in engineering skills in the 90’s.
This has been magnified by the change in ownership of ICI and
British Steel, as well as the loss of engineering giants such as
Davy McKee.
“These major organisations used to put a huge amount of resource
into the promotion and implementation of specialist training
programmes. And so we need to make sure that employers, and those
who support them, continue to invest in these crucial engineering
disciplines so that we don’t have a shortfall of skilled workers in
the future.”
Taking a proactive approach in tackling such issues, as well as
providing a means of keeping ahead of technological changes, K Home
International is working closely with Semta, the Sector Skills
Council for science, engineering and manufacturing
technologies.
Semta is one of 25 employer-led Sector Skills Councils, whose
role is to help employers identify and address their skills needs.
Each Sector Skills Council is an independent organisation, which
covers a specific sector across the UK, with goals to reduce skills
gaps and shortages; improve productivity, business and public
service performance; increase opportunities to boost skills and
improve the supply of learning.
As part of this support Sector Skills Councils are drawing up a
number of Sector Skills Agreements. In effect these are pacts
between employers, training providers, stakeholders and the
Government to provide a structured way in which all parties can
work together to address skills issues.
One of the latest agreements, which will be available in Spring
2008, will be aimed at the Metals, Mechanical and Electrical
sector, which employs over 800,000 people nationally, 5 per cent of
which are based in the North East.
This is of particular significance to the region as, according
to Semta, Metals, Mechanical and Electrical sites in the North East
report a higher proportion of skills gaps than their national
counterparts.
It is for reasons such as this that K Home International is keen
to help Semta gain a greater first-hand understanding of the issues
faced by employers in engineering related organisations.
And leading by example in terms of training and development, K
Home International is reaping the rewards of investing in the
skills of its workers. Peter Kay explains:
“Semta has been instrumental in helping us to implement a
planned programme of staff development. This includes growing our
own talent through Apprenticeships and supporting a number of our
workers through HNC and Degree courses at University. And although
this support has mainly focused on engineering disciplines, one of
our employees has also completed a course with the Chartered
Institute of Management Accounts.”
As a result K Home International is extremely grateful for
Semta’s support, although Peter is quick to point out that
employers, as well as employees, also need to take responsibility
for their actions before it’s too late.
“It’s easy to put the blame at someone else’s door when things
aren’t going to plan. But the message is simple: if you don’t want
to be left behind you need to take an objective look at what you’re
doing and find ways of being more ambitious.”
This is something with which Judith Taylor, regional manager,
Skills for Business network, the organisation which supports all 25
Sector Skills Councils, strongly agrees. She added:
“Now, more than ever before, employers have the opportunity to
have their say about the skills which are pertinent to their
sector. Not only that, but they can directly influence what happens
in the future. So as well as helping the UK to be more competitive,
they also have the opportunity to make sure that they are fully
resourced for what’s happening today and tomorrow.”
ends
Media contact: Rachael Campey, SSDA
Tel 01709 765 435
Notes to editors:
1. The Sector Skills Development Agency, is responsible for
funding, supporting and monitoring the network of Sector Skills
Councils (SSCs).
Its responsibilities are to:
- fund, support and monitor the performance of SSCs
- ensure consistent, high-quality standards across the Skills for
Business network
- ensure skills provision is designed to meet sector needs
- provide minimum cover for sectors without a SSC
- ensure generic skills are effectively covered in the work of
the SSCs
- promote best practice sharing and bench-marking between
sectors
- to collate high quality labour market intelligence and to make
this available via a website portal.
2. Skills for Business is the brand name for the whole network
of 25 SSCs and the SSDA.
For further information visit www.ssda.org.uk