Sharing in Growth (SiG), the industry-led productivity and competitiveness improvement programme, has now helped UK aerospace suppliers to win contracts worth more than £3.4 billion.

Almost a third of this figure was achieved in 2018 by accelerating the scale of the impact of the industry-led productivity and competitiveness programme.

This £3.4 billion total is equivalent to 30,000 man-years of work or securing 5,500 high-value jobs, according to SiG.

The programme, which is funded by private- and public-sector contributions, is so successful that it is providing a 60:1 return on public investment, with most of the companies on the programme growing at five-times the rate of their industry peers.

Among the companies that have increased their competitiveness and won new contracts are Castle Precision, ATL, JJ Churchill and Martin Aerospace (pictured), plus TMD Technologies, Produmax, Amphenol Invotec and Winbro Group Technologies.

In 2018, SiG delivered more than 700,000hr of training and continued to develop the programme in line with the demands of global competitiveness.

This included: adding an on-line hub to reinforce learning; a new directory of engineering innovation partners who can provide training in areas such as additive manufacturing and automation; and the introduction of a Team Leader Training Academy to develop the next generation of highly talented leadership.

CEO Andy Page said: “Investment in new technology or capital equipment per se will not improve productivity, especially where management is weak.

"SiG is creating a virtuous growth cycle in our learning and skills community, where improved productivity and competitiveness wins contracts, in turn providing the funds to invest in people, technology and growth to win even more business.

"Our exceptional results are testament to the learning capacity of ambitious supply-chain companies and the expertise of our own squad of around 100 specialists, who have applied their 2,000 years of combined experience to great effect.”

In 2018, SiG won the national Semta Innovation Award for improving the capability and productivity of over 10,000 people working in the aerospace supply chain.

Companies interested in joining the programme can register their interest on the Web site (www.sig-uk.org/apply).