A recent study undertaken by
Make UK found that the manufacturing sector faces 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies, which it says is costing £6 billion per year in lost output. The organisation also says that since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced, apprenticeship starts are down 42%, intensifying shortages — especially for SMEs.
However, the Coventry-based machine tool supplier
NCMT Ltd and the engineering services provider
BEL Engineering are working to reverse this trend with a partnership that has equipped BEL’s Training Academy with an Okuma Genos M460V-5AX five-axis vertical machining centre that will give apprentices ‘an industry-realistic environment to develop job-ready skills’.
Simon McLeod, BEL Engineering’s manufacturing, training and development lead, said: “Most of our future work is five-axis, so our investment strategy in machinery matches the equipment our learners will be using on the shopfloor. Common controls, probing, and offline programming mean they will build a transferable model of how jobs are really run, so what they practise in the Academy is what they will do once qualified, working on the best multi-axis machinery.”
Recruitment challengeAndrew Skee, NCMT’s sales manager (the North East and Scotland), said: “BEL Engineering previously struggled to recruit suitably skilled machinists, so they chose to build talent from the ground up. By investing in their machining capabilities to help their apprentices and giving learners access to the best five-axis technology, they are creating engineers who can be of immediate benefit.”
In a ‘novel development’, BEL Engineering Academy and NCMT are blending real-world training with social media, a development that sees apprentices watching videos of live machining setups, toolpaths, and probing cycles from engineers throughout the UK and beyond, then applying those insights in the Academy.
Mr McLeod added: “They are not only learning in the classroom but also seeing how their peers and engineers around the world are working. Doing so gives them inspiration and context for what these machines can achieve, which in turn boosts their confidence to try new approaches in our Academy. Such social channels give them context for what is possible and the confidence to attempt new approaches safely in our Academy.”
Callum Muir, an NCMT apprentice, said: “Social media has turned our phones into a shared toolbox. When we have breaks, we show each other short videos, such as those on aerospace, lightweight fixtures for automotive, tough Inconel valves for oil and gas, and precision implants for medical. Watching clips helps us picture what ‘good’ looks like across sectors, practice it safely on the machines, and build the confidence to take on more complex parts.”