Britain’s manufacturers, leading unions, skills training providers and industry bodies are calling today on the Government to take urgent action to safeguard the skills the country’s economy needs now and in the future by acting to save the country’s apprenticeships and re-skill, retrain and redeploy the expertise of those skilled workers made redundant as a result of Covid-19.
Against the current backdrop of mass lay-offs on a scale unseen since the 1980s, the manufacturing sector faces a loss of skills, jobs and apprentices that without help, will not return to levels seen before Covid-19 for years to come.
Apprenticeships, long seen by the sector as the best route to secure invaluable skills, are becoming unaffordable as businesses struggle for survival. In May the number of starts for 16-18 year olds dropped 79% year-on-year, with numbers set to dwindle even further. A third of manufacturers are cancelling or putting their apprenticeship training on hold due to financial pressure from Covid-19.
Make UK, the Trade Union Congress, the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions and skills training providers Enginuity and Cogent alongside other leading industry stakeholders from sectors including aerospace, food and drink, automotive, chemicals and defence, have joined forces to write to the Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson, outlining the immediate and direct action needed to safeguard Britain’s skills, young people and the manufacturing sector as a whole.
A National Skills taskforce must be set up at speed involving the trade unions and other key stakeholders to ensure vital skills and skilled workers are retained and redeployed within industry.
The taskforce should work to identify opportunities where workers’ skills are in demand, whether in manufacturing or other sectors and develop a flagship upskilling programme to support employers in the development of new digital and ‘green’ skills needed for a future-proofed economy.
This should work alongside a nationally agreed programme for workers who already have the necessary basic skills to reskill them into new growth areas of work and take advantage of new jobs that will be required as companies look to work differently, bringing their supply chains closer to home and enter new markets.
Apprentices, the skilled workers of the future, must also be protected through more flexible use of levy funds paid by companies. Government must extend the lifetime of funds from 24 to 36 months to allow apprentices the chance to finish their courses.
The levy should also be further adapted to allow it to be used for short term retraining and reskilling, alongside the introduction of modular learning to speed apprentices through training.
Flexibility should be applied allowing levy-paying companies to use their levy funds to protect employment, while non-levy companies should have access to new direct grants.
To future-proof the apprenticeship model going forward, Government must also allow companies to spend more levy funds on an apprenticeship to reflect the real cost of training a young person.
Stephen Phipson, CEO of Make UK (pictured), said: “Imaginative and speedy solutions are required to safeguard manufacturing in the UK in these unprecedented times.
“A National Skills Taskforce made up of representatives from industry, trade unions and Government – led by the Business Department – would go a long way to protecting the essential skills of the future within the sector.
“A programme to redeploy those highly skilled workers made redundant during Covid-19 would safeguard manufacturing for the future, and help the sector retain hard-won talent as the country begins the hard work of economic recovery.
“Apprenticeships too are in danger of becoming another casualty - with companies already reducing or cancelling their training programmes altogether. Apprentices are the future, and without those skilled workers the country will not be able to take advantage of any upturn when it happens.”
Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary, said: “Workers are going to face massive economic challenges in the months ahead and it is often young workers and apprentices who experience the worst impact.
“It is critical that the Government listens to this call to act urgently to support current apprentices to complete their programmes and to enable employers to continue to provide high-quality apprenticeship opportunities.”
General secretary CSEU Ian Waddell said: “Apprentices currently in training must be allowed to complete their apprenticeships and get their qualifications.
“Equally, potential long-term damage will be done to the economy by the loss of thousands of skilled workers who face losing their jobs through no fault of their own and who have skills that would enable them to retrain in areas of the economy that will be vital in the economic recovery.
“These workers have invested their lives in engineering, science and manufacturing and they must not be cast aside.”
CEO of Enginuity Ann Watson added: “The manufacturing sector is at a pivotal moment in its ability to bounce back from the economic impact that the lockdown has brought.
“It is vital that we take collective action now to ensure that experienced engineers are not lost from the economy and that for our young people and economic future that apprenticeships are protected to the full.”