Britain needs industry/manufacturing strategy

[AE-NMidlands]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... GTUK_email

Renewed calls for UK industrial strategy to bring in investment and fix Brexit damage: Billions risk being lost without joined-up policy on tech, robotics, renewables and training, says manufacturing body
...
the UK had not had an ambitious industrial plan since 2010, when the Catapult Networks were unveiled involving a nationwide series of research and development centres to provide the technological support and specialists for manufacturing innovation.
The network was then expanded in 2017 by the then business secretary, Greg Clark, but Phipson said that when Kwasi Kwarteng held that post in 2022 he replaced the scheme with “a short advanced manufacturing plan” that did “not give anyone certainty”.

Phipson said this had left the UK with one foot firmly in the past, with the lowest use of robots in Europe and just one battery plant despite now long-standing climate policies to remove to sustainable energy sources.

“If you go back to 2010 when we created the catapults, we created the biggest commercial aerospace component provider in the world,” he said, referring to Airbus in Broughton, north Wales. “We are now the world’s leader in advanced materials and all because the industrial strategy was brilliantly successful at putting us at the top 10 in the world.”

He said industry was going through an “enormous transition” to meet climate targets but the government was not doing enough to help them deliver.

“We have to transition 26m boilers in the UK, where are the engineers for that? Where is the skills programme? The Department for Education is asleep at the wheel. We need a skills agenda all over. We’re upgrading the national grid. We’ve just decided to invest £54bn, but we haven’t got cable makers, transformer makers, they disappeared 25 years ago.
“We need one big plan, and if we don’t have that plan, these big companies won’t come here.”
...

[Adokforme]

Thanks for posting AE and yes what a mess we appear to be in especially on the renewable front of which we are mostly aware due to the flip flopping of previous admin, I hadn't appreciated that it had a far wider and greater impact throughout industries elsewhere.
The new admin appears to understand that busimess requires long term stability upon which to base investment decisions which is presumably aimed at the private sector with the expectation that it picks up the baton. Only time will tell!
I didn't vote the latest incumbants in but have been pleasantly surprised at how they appear to be confronting a strong return to renewable energy generation in once again setting definitive targets for 2030, although quite how they wil be achieved has not been detailed.
The Guardian article is certainly something that needs addressing and good for them and you to headline it. Thanks.

[Paul_F]

Talking about skills and can't tell the difference between an engineer and a technician.

[Moxi]

Maybe if the government recognised Professional Engineers properly as they do on the continent and around most of the rest of the world we wouldn't have the problem of people being unable to differentiate between technicians and engineers ? Just another way that previous governments have eroded the value of higher education.

Moxi

[Paul_F]

Maybe if the government recognised Professional Engineers properly as they do on the continent and around most of the rest of the world we wouldn't have the problem of people being unable to differentiate between technicians and engineers?

That's a long ongoing debate. One of the problems I have with the debate is that it can get quite snobby and there is an associated assumption that technician type skills are less valuable than the more academic ones normally associated with say a Chartered Engineer (full disclosure - I'm CEng FIMechE). I don't agree with this at all - both skills are required and take a long time to learn, and almost always both skills are required. People who can do both to a very high standard are vanishingly rare. My problem is that we need BOTH, and they are taught and gained differently which this article appears not to understand.

Just another way that previous governments have eroded the value of higher education.

Quite a lot of higher education is vocational, getting more so over time in fact and I'm strongly in favour of that. The associated investment in it has been poor, however, and it hasn't been given the prestige it deserves.

[Moxi]

Paul,

Couldn't agree more with what you said and yes its gone on for decades ad-nauseum, but the problem with shadowy definitions is that you get people who shouldn't be (because they are not qualified or experienced enough) "having a go" because there's no real enforcement of standards.

Similarly would we feel confident taking a holiday flight knowing that the pilot hasn't had any real world experience but they can fly all types on a simulator ?

Most of the rest of the world has the delineation of responsibility so why is it so hard in the UK ?

It cant be money - most plumbers and electricians I know are on much more than I am as a salary and the only reason I haven't switched to plumbing myself is that I am too old to retrain and more importantly I enjoy my engineering discipline too much.

But based on the current free for all how does a property owner know that the fella he engages to do a structural survey on his home is a qualified structural engineer rather than a professional builder who has worked their way up through the trades and knows a thing or two about beams and lintels. Arguably most of the time either person will get it right and there's no realisation of risk but what if the builder determines the beam loading of an RSJ is sufficient based on his instinct and a few years later the RSJ fails and the building collapses ? Its a bit like accountants and project managers picking a cladding type without recourse to a fire engineers assessment and we all know how badly that went.

Its not all about titles but it is all about safety and the right people doing the job right.

Moxi

[Fintray]

Its a bit like accountants and project managers picking a cladding type without recourse to a fire engineers assessment and we all know how badly that went.

Its not all about titles but it is all about safety and the right people doing the job right.

Moxi

Accountants picking a cladding type! Some of them can't even get their own job right going by the number of high profile audits that showed all was well with a company just before it went belly up...