An optimistic future for manufacturing

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Experts from British manufacturing have praised the "optimistic" outlook for the sector, but argue that more needs to be done to ensure parliamentarians understand the importance of manufacturing to the nation's economy.

At the end of the first year of the Manufacturing Dialogue, do you believe the programme has served as a successful platform for collaboration and as an effective promotional tool to challenge misconceptions of British manufacturing amongst parliamentarians?

Nigel Dove, head of development & marketing, the Manufacturing Institute: The Dialogue has provided a fantastic platform to facilitate engagement between the manufacturing sector and politicians. There has been a real sense that there is always an 'open door' for manufacturers and their representatives to discuss policy with ministers and backbenchers alike.

Politicians do want to hear about manufacturing and the Dialogue serves as a very valuable exercise to assist parliamentarians in finding out more about manufacturing within the UK.

Looking to the next few months and years, a key challenge for the Dialogue, and the industry as a whole, is to develop a cross-departmental strategy for manufacturing that spans across government after government.

Alberto de Benedictis, chief executive, Finmeccanica UK: The Dialogue has been timed very well and the importance of promoting British manufacturing has been propelled forward by circumstances in the marketplace and the worrying economic situation that the nation, and indeed the world, is suffering from.

The Dialogue has succeeded in attracting a cross-party selection of MPs to its receptions, roundtables and summits. This, of course, can only be a good thing. Many manufacturing organisations are concerned that the number of MPs exposed to manufacturing in this Parliament is far less than in previous years. As a result, the more politicians who understand manufacturing, the better. The Dialogue has proved very useful in promoting the work of British manufacturers to MPs of all political persuasions.

Melanie Leech, director general, Food and Drink Federation: The Dialogue has been a great success. For the Food and Drink Federation a major positive has been making broader partnerships and reaffirming our shared interests with other manufacturing organisations. The amount of common ground has been quite staggering.

Reaching out to a wider and more comprehensive base of parliamentarians, that we probably couldn't have done on a food and drink manufacturing platform, has been vitally important and the quality of engagement that we have had with parliamentarians has been second to none.

The Dialogue's report Manufacturing a Greater Britain highlights 'five key policy recommendations for change'. Amongst these is the need to equip the workforce with the correct skills to drive growth within the sector. How important for the health of manufacturing is it to ensure that both future and existing employees have the appropriate skill set?

Nigel Dove: The two things that mark manufacturing out to other sectors are the passion of the people that run the businesses, and the ingenuity of the workforce. Skills really define the competiveness of the industry within a global marketplace.

There is a real need to improve skills at different levels across the academic and professional worlds, and the report highlights this. Firstly, we must strengthen the rigour of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects in schools and ensure that there is a greater focus on these in the curriculum.

The industry must also look at how employees progress through a manufacturing company. We need to develop the idea of a skills ladder, where people can progress in their careers in dynamic and expanding organisations.

Alberto de Benedictis: For companies such as Finmeccanica, skills are vital.

Out of 9,000 employees that we have in the UK, more than half are highly skilled, serving as technicians and engineers, for example. As a consequence, it is vital that we retain this kind of skill set.

To train new employees, even advanced graduates, into our technologies takes three or four years and so having access to the right skill sets is a large investment that we have to make.

Our apprenticeships schemes typically last three or four years, so we make a huge investment in each apprentice, both in terms of time and finance. When the apprentice completes the programme they could go and get a job in manufacturing anywhere they wanted in the world. However, because our apprenticeship programmes are so rigorous, the retention rates are very high.

It is important to note that we can only continue to provide successful apprenticeships if we have the correct programmes, and technologies that are challenging to the very highest-skilled employees.

In the 1960s and 70s there were big international programmes, such as Concorde and the Lunar landings, that kept thousands of engineers in employment. We don't have these global projects any more, but we need to find proxies to ensure that talented young manufacturers and engineers are challenged and that their skills are utilised.

Melanie Leech: Like many other manufacturing sectors, we have an aging workforce.

We have 400,000 employees in the food and drink manufacturing sector and we will lose a third of those in the next ten years. Therefore being able to recruit talent for the future is absolutely critical for us, as is upskilling our existing workforce.

What is the future for manufacturing in the UK?

Nigel Dove: The outlook for manufacturing in the UK is extremely positive and the Manufacturing Institute is optimistic for the future of the industry. Admittedly the success of manufacturing in the long term depends on the exchange rate, but we are expecting this to remain relatively stable for the next 12 months.

However, British manufacturers must be wary of our competitors, who are improving year on year. The number of graduates being turned out in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries is quite staggering, for example.

Britain still has world-leading brands and we remain internationally very competitive, we just need to make sure that as a nation we strive to stay ahead of our international challengers.

Alberto de Benedictis: The future of manufacturing is bright. The UK has one of the best supply chains in the world, particularly in the areas Finmeccanica operates in – aerospace and defence.

It is important to keep this momentum going within the UK. To do this, as a nation we have to ensure we are always capable of competing against the best companies in the burgeoning economic superpowers of China and India. We really do live in a global economy.

Melanie Leech: We are really positive about food and drink manufacturing, and next week at our parliamentary reception we will unveil a vision for growing our sector over the next few years. We are confident that we have the ability to deliver on that vision, given the right partnership with government and the correct framework in which we can tackle barriers to growth and ensure that we maximise economic opportunities.

I am confident and positive about the future of manufacturing.