OM Engineers Dinner Speech

Vice-President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Gordon has very kindly asked me to speak from the perspective of an employer.

I am currently Non-Executive Chairman of Wire Belt Company Ltd. in Sittingbourne who manufacture wire conveyor belting and conveyors mainly for food processing and nearly 70% are exported worldwide. Good examples of products processed on our belting are chocolate digestive biscuits and chicken nuggets.

Recruiting skilled staff has always been difficult for small engineering companies. As a former higher apprentice I knew the value of training and on joining Wire Belt, I set a long term target of recruiting 50% of our Level 3 skilled workers as trainees or apprentices from full time education. This applied to all disciplines within the company. While we never actually achieved that target, even today, we are pretty close!

Government changes to the links between Education and Business have resulted in lower numbers seeking apprenticeships at Level 3 and this has resulted in Wire Belt not filling all of its apprenticeship vacancies in recent years. If you ask any engineering or manufacturing company what their biggest challenge is, it is likely to be difficulty in recruiting the necessary technical skills needed in production or product development. Brexit is expected to make matters worse in the long-term.

On balance, long term training policies work well. However using Wire Belt as an example, it does go wrong from time

NEXT DINNER

Bleeding Heart

10th May 2019

The 2019 dinner has been booked for Friday 10th May.

Gordon Mizner (Murray 65-69)

Attendees

Gordon and Angela Mizner

Peter and Anita Wakeham

Richard Llewellyn

Bob Branch

Panos Yianni

Richard Amunugama

Nick Priestnall

Graeme Roberts

Paul Winter

Mitesh Bhimyanjani

Christopher Katz Summercorn

Simon Moir

Clive Mence

Luke Stubbles

Jay Popat (pupil)

Theo Jones (pupil)

Daniel Hildebrand (pupil) to time. After over 12 months of searching for a Technical Manager, we still have not found a suitable candidate. This is a good example of today’s skills shortages.

With the average age of skilled engineers at 54 the shortage is likely to get worse before it gets better! One solution would be to increase the number of women engineers who currently only make up 9% of the total and indeed, who’s numbers in some high-tech industries, are declining?

However, as Mr. Gallagher, my Economics Master at Mill Hill taught me, unbalanced supply & demand creates winners and losers! In this case, engineering and manufacturing graduates have the upper hand which creates great employment opportunities and in addition with the number of Degree Apprenticeships now on offer, this can be achieved without a student loan and with a competitive salary from the point of leaving school!

In drawing to a close, may I pay tribute to Gordon on his retirement from the Chief Executive role at the Engineering Development Trust. Through the EDT, the support he has given Engineering & Manufacturing has been invaluable by encouraging youngsters from junior school upwards to consider engineering as a career. In my case, I became involved with the Engineering Education Scheme and found the experience quite inspirational.

Gordon, on behalf of everyone, may I wish you a long and happy retirement.

Paul Winter, 11th May 2018