Engineering’s ‘best opportunity for 100 years’

While his optimism is tempered by the reluctance of lenders to support small and medium-sized businesses and a lack of practical government support Stuart Harvey (pictured), managing director of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk-based motor control and automation equipment specialist SoftStart UK, believes the growing might of recently emerged industrial giants like Brazil, India, Russia and China will wane to the UK's advantage. In a paper entitled: 'I'd encourage my children into engineering, would you?' Harvey acknowledges the economic growth of the BRIC nations and that "the 1980s idea that the West could 'offshore the grunt work and keep the well-paid clever stuff at home' is now completely outdated". However, he goes on: "As these nations' wealth grows, their populations will want their wage levels and standards of living to match those in the West. So the international playing field that once favoured Britain (along with Europe and America) and then tipped to help the East will eventually level out completely." This leads, he says, to the conclusion that globalisation has a finite life expectancy. "Once the emerging economies achieve wage parity with the West they will have lost their major advantage and many industries will 'deglobalise' or 'relocalise'. Thus, we see that the economic tide will turn in favour of UK engineering. This is great news for today's kids, provided we maintain the university engineering courses, apprenticeships and other career-starting options." Harvey goes on to urge the government and all its successors for the next 20 years to do all they can to encourage engineering and manufacturing industries to capitalise on this trend. "Engineering, manufacturing and technology have many opportunities, some large, many small, just waiting to be realised. If the government can create the right financial environment they should be realisable and help form a more stable economic base than we have enjoyed for 100 years. I would certainly encourage today's youngsters to consider a career in engineering – and that is something I have not said since I was an apprentice," he concludes.