January/February 2019

isn’t clear if the engineering resources are available to support Industry 1,2 and 3 technologies.” Sands pointed out that digital maintenance tools, predictive maintenance messaging and artificial intelligence supported resources are available and users can see, and be trained, in leading universities and colleges using the Festo Didactic CP (Cyber-Physical) factory equipment. “But the foundations must be in place for core technologies such as pneumatics, electro- pneumatics and PLC programming before the skills can be developed in the use of OPC-UA protocols and Time Sensitive Networking,” he said. Roy Brooks, technical development officer, BCAS, explained that the BCAS Board continues to examine the very real impact that the UK’s engineering skill shortage poses, not just within our own business sectors, but the industry at large. “The UK has a missing generation of skilled engineers and an ageing and, a decreasing pool of skilled personnel is driving up business costs,” he said. “A major proportion of the current resource will retire before 2035. BCAS members report difficulties in filling all job vacancies and as many as 46% of employers are reported to be struggling to fill management positions according to the Institute of Leadership Management. “The re-introduction of engineering training products is now a major requirement for education establishments across the UK, especially as more engineering apprenticeship standards are approved for delivery. Our schools, colleges and universities must now look urgently at how they intend to provide the training facilities and personnel that will help deliver the skilled engineers the UK requires “As a result, BCAS is working with the IFA (Institute for Apprenticeships) to develop its ‘Standard Based Apprenticeship (Trailblazer)’ with the intent that this will be available as an apprenticeship and graduate schemes and we are proud to have colleagues from both routes making great contributions across a wide spectrum of roles and responsibilities within our organisation,” he said. “In addition, over the past year and into 2019, we have continued our focus on upskilling our sales team to deliver excellent customer service. Our IGNITE programme has touched 600 of our people globally, with 160 people completing the foundation course in sales skills, pneumatics and also a module explaining Industry 4.0. By investing in our people, we can improve our service to customers and this in turn can help our customers get the most out of their operations.” Jeavons considers that there are certainly sufficient levels of training available and explained that Fluid Power Group regularly holds training events for customers across a number of locations, including Flowtechnology, Derek Lane and Primary Fluid Power. “The training available provides an excellent foundation, but we have found it is critical to work closely with manufacturers and customers to keep approved standard by the end of 2019.” Fearnley feels that the best solution to the skills need is to aim for a combination of staff who have a relevant background (our industry or job function) as well as some people who don’t possess that relevant background but who are willing to develop their skills. “Therefore, we can ensure we do have a team who exceed both our own and our customers/suppliers’ requirements,” she said. Smith believes training in general globally could be improved and what does exist is unstructured and underutilised due to time constraints. “I can’t speak for the UK specifically in this regard,” he added. Dysfunctional Wright believes the apprenticeship schemes still seem dysfunctional, difficult to navigate and focused around the needs of big business and not suited to SMEs. Geobey reflected that in recent years we have seen a rebalancing between further education and more vocational paths as options for young aspiring engineers to follow after finishing school. “IMI Precision Engineering runs both .OMN VXKYY[XK N_JXG[ROI Y]O\KR IU[VROTMY + SGOR KTW[OXOKY&MRKTZNUXVKKTM IU [Q =KH ]]] MRKTZNUXVKKTM IU [Q DĂĚĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ h< DƵůƚŝƉůĞ ĨŝƚƚŝŶŐ ĂƌƌĂŶŐĞŵĞŶƚƐ Θ ƚŚƌĞĂĚ ƚLJƉĞƐ ĨƌŽŵ ϭͬϰ͟ ƵƉ ƚŽ Ϯ͟ ^W͕ ^Wd͕ EWd͕ :͘/͘ ͕ hE&͕ :͘/͘^͕ /E >Θ^͕ DĞƚƌŝĐ d >͗ ϬϮϬϴ ϵϳϳ ϱϰϯϯ