Dr Benjamin Silverstone, Head of WMG Skills Centre

The world of engineering has entered a momentous epoch, as modern machines of all kinds pivot away from fossil fuels to more sustainable and increasingly electrified power systems, to enable a less carbon intensive future.

The pace and scope of change is breath-taking, and the gauntlet has been laid down for engineering businesses to adopt the skills needed to thrive during this transition. The transport sector is at the forefront, with the UK Government targeting 2030 for ending new internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle sales. This has provided a definitive target for the automotive industry, and will accelerate change in other sectors.

Adaptability is key throughout the green industrial revolution

The Government’s ambitions highlight the requirement to transition away from combustion engine-based skills over the next eight years, and this is enough time if engineering businesses take the initiative and begin to change today. This won’t be an easy transition, and will present many challenges.

Heritage engineering businesses with large amounts of capital invested in legacy technology and skills are traditionally slow to change. Organisations will need to be adaptable if they are to succeed throughout the green industrial revolution, in terms of identifying where new skills are required and then committing to invest in the relevant workforce training. Part of the challenge for businesses will be to critically assess what the correct skills set of the future is. What skills will be in demand in five, ten and twenty years or longer will be crucial to businesses thriving. Waiting for absolute clarity on skills requirements risks leaving too much to do in too short a period of time. Businesses that prevaricate risk are becoming casualties of the world’s net zero ambitions.

Consumer direction of travel

Skills are the currency with which a company purchases opportunity. If firms do not invest in more sustainable technology skills they will lose the initiative and customers, who are increasingly intolerant of companies not committed to the sustainability agenda, will look elsewhere to organisations that align with their personal outlook. This is evidenced by data from the SMMT, which showed that in 2021, against a backdrop of decreasing total car sales (down 29% on pre-pandemic sales) and lower grant incentives, battery electric vehicle sales alone increased by over 75% to one in nine of all new car sales1, a powerful testament of consumer direction of travel. This necessitates greater investment in training budgets for continual reskilling of the entire workforce, and highlights the importance of an agile outlook if companies are to be the first to leverage the market opportunities that arise in an increasingly decarbonised economy.

Cultural investment is also critical, as the solid track records of heritage companies is no longer enough to attract the best staff. Manufacturing start-ups like Britishvolt and Rivian attract top-flight talent and large financial investment in a similar way to tech start-ups, because of their high aspirations and novel approaches, not necessarily because of a solid track record. These firms often invest in training staff to keep them up to date with the latest skills and explore many new and different technologies, not just those tried and tested techniques.

Universal skills across sectors

More concerted and proactive effort to form long term, collaborative partnerships between engineering firms, manufacturers, government agencies, research institutes and education providers will be key to changing how we address the engineering skills gap. First and foremost, the industry must stop thinking in terms of engineering jobs and more in terms of a career journey, which will be the only way for skills to keep pace with the rate of change. Flexibility will be paramount, adapting more quickly than in the past to new technologies. Skills, in many ways, will also become more universal across sectors. We are seeing it already with automotive electrification experts moving into the aerospace sector, where their competencies are directly applicable. Engineering skills are becoming less siloed, making investment in staff training even more beneficial for the whole engineering industry.

The UK government has accepted there is a skills gap facing engineering, thought that does not necessarily mean they have solved it, though there are an increasing number of resources available to help address this challenge. The National Electrification Skills Framework2, published in 2021, provides a single, nationally applicable roadmap for how the UK can gain the skills to become a world leader in electrification. This provides an opportunity for companies, stakeholders and individuals to get the guidance and advice they need. This blueprint is for any rapidly changing sector seeking to define future skills requirements based on the technologies used.

WMG Skills Centre

Additionally, the WMG Skills Centre, launched in January 2022, will provide short, targeted courses, servicing a need in the engineering industry for upskilling of current staff in commercially relevant skills. This includes courses such as the Battery School, which provides a basis in battery technology that is sector-agnostic, hence applicable to a large cross section of manufacturers and engineers.

This kind of retraining which meets the needs of commercial skills training should serve as a model for the whole of the engineering sector. One programme can be constructed to underpin many sectors, cutting the costs of training and speeding up the roll out compared to developing specialised sector specific courses, which is unnecessary and counter intuitive.

In summary

The skills agenda for engineering will be ever evolving, as it always has been, but the pace and scope of change is happening at a rate not seen before. Firms must be proactive in scanning the horizon for the skills of the future, and not passively wait for the answer to crystallise in front of them - by then it may be too late. Continuous conversations with all industry stakeholders will be key to staying ahead of the skills curve. A culture change from talking about jobs to engineering career journeys will be needed to achieve this skills transition, and allow the UK engineering industry to remain a world leader in the preeminent industries of the future.

• https://www.smmt.co.uk/2022/01/covid-stalls-2021-uk-new-car-market-but-record-ev-sales-show-future-direction/
• https://hvm.catapult.org.uk/reports/national-electrification-skills-framework/

Article originally featured in Engineering Magazine.