Birmingham-based BSA Tools Ltd (
www.bsa-tools.co.uk), one of Britain’s most iconic engineering brands, is reaching out to UK colleges to bolster apprenticeship training and the active promotion of science, technology, engineering and manufacturing (STEM) subjects.
According to the business that was once synonymous with a stellar manufacturing heritage, there has never been a more important time to rebuild the nation’s engineering prowess in order to compete on the global stage.
The Government has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in technology training; and the company is encouraging vocational colleges to make contact with regard to building a skilled workforce plus the provision and maintenance of the tool-making machines needed for training, many of which are still operating smoothly after several decades of use.
Rescued from administration in 2017, BSA Tools has created 15 new jobs; it has also tempted former employees to rejoin the business and share their experience with the next generation of engineers.
It is currently looking for new recruits and an additional senior engineer to replace Robin Cray, who first joined BSA Tools in 1969, rejoined it last year to help train apprentices, and is now looking to retire.
He said: “We want to bring back high-quality British engineering, and helping these youngsters learn on the job is what it is all about.”
BSA’s business development manager, Emily Eyles, said: “BSA’s reach into vocational colleges was part of the heritage of the brand. We want to be part of training that next generation and see the colleges using our machines, which are still the envy of the world.
“We have recently completed a rebuild on one machine that was 50 years old, and it was working as sweetly as it was on ‘day one’.
“It was designed and built to a bygone-age specification, a quality that preceded the notion of built-in obsolescence.”