Semta calls for skills revolution

Its latest report concluded: "The pace of development driving technological progress and new processes is outstripping the nation's ability to skill its workforce. And SMEs have a particularly acute challenge ahead of them." The report, 'Engineering Skills for the Future', was conducted for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. It reveals that many companies are already struggling to secure the skills that they need. Semta said: "Plastic Electronics (plastic components that conduct electricity), new composites and Additive Manufacturing are becoming increasingly important to new aircraft and vehicle design – yet training in these specialisms remains limited." Semta chief exective Sarah Sillars OBE (pictured) added: "The good news is that industry and science continues to accelerate the evolutionary process – finding new ways of manufacturing and new things to manufacture – but the report underlines the stresses that this brings to bear on training and the supply of a newly skilled work force. "The complexity of new manufacturing processes will require a multi-faceted flexible workforce that can work across a number of disciplines. "SMEs make up a large part of the sector – and Semta will provide them with a raft of support to help them rise to the challenge. Semta is in discussion with the Automotive and Aerospace industries to help make this happen." Among the report's findings are: • The adoption of additive manufacturing technologies is expected to have a major impact on the demand for design engineers, particularly within the aerospace sector. Designing courses and apprenticeship frameworks to incorporate additive manufacturing techniques will be important to help address the general lack of training currently available in this area. • An increasing use of composite technologies will create demand for Research and Development roles such as scientists and test engineers, as well as design engineers and people with CAD skills. Forming strategic partnerships between industry and further/higher education will be critical to firm-level innovation by ensuring composite technologies are fully exploited in the production process. • The multidisciplinary nature of Plastic Electronics technologies mean that many employers find it difficult to find the right calibre of staff. A number of companies interviewed were only able to source the skills they require by relying heavily from a small pool of companies and/or academic institutions in the UK. Many companies operating in Plastic Electronic technologies are small and therefore face barriers to training as they lack both the resources and influence with potential providers to warrant the development of bespoke training packages.