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Conservative Fringe - An
industrial policy for the 21st century: engineering
growth in Britain
Mon, 4 October 2010
Summary of the event by De
Havilland
 Skills Minister John Hayes
today called for a navigable and seductive
vocational education path for young people.
Mr Hayes was speaking at a
fringe meeting entitled ‘An industrial policy for
the 21st century: engineering growth in Britain’
alongside Jane Atkinson from SembCorp Utilities,
Kate Bellingham, STEM Ambassador and David Kester
from the Design Council. The meeting was chaired by
David Furness from the Social Market Foundation.
John Hayes began by detailing
that he had held the skills post in opposition and
had had time to develop skills policies in regards
to growth, industry and manufacturing. However,
since the economic climate had changed, politicians
were forced to be more innovative and prioritise
resources appropriately.
The minister outlined plans
for a demand-led approach to skills where learners
and employers framed what was required. He floated
the idea of independent learning accounts which
would need to be paid for by loans. In higher
education, the idea that people had to pay for
education was established and wondered whether this
could be extended to further education.
He also floated the idea of
employers paying for skills rather than receiving
things for free that they may not value. The
minister was clear that he wanted to look at the
link between value and cost in this regard.
The called the bureaucracy of
further education “Stalinist” and said that under
the Labour government, further education had spend
its time “counting beans and jumping through hoops”.
He pledged to reduce bureaucracy so FE could be more
responsive to learners and link up more with
employers, especially in growth areas where skills
were needed.
He went on to highlight plans
for a “progressive” and clearer vocational pathway
so that young people could make decisions on their
potential career path through advice and
encouragement. A career in engineering needed to be
seen as sexy and seductive, he said. Indeed popular
culture seemed to revere people with practical
skills and the minister wanted to build on this.
Apprenticeships lay at the
heart of the minister’s policy, he affirmed. They
offered an opportunity to gain needed competencies,
were respected by employers and learners and their
cost and value was certain, he added.
He pledged to build
apprenticeships in a way never built before as part
of a skills revolution, he told delegates.
While the importance to the
economy was clear, Mr Hayes spoke about the life
changing impact of apprenticeships in terms of
opportunities to succeed, social mobility and the
“elevation of the practical".
In summary, he insisted that
government understood that skills mattered and he
would work to promote “the glory and beauty of
craft”.
Earlier, Jane Atkinson
explained that she ran coal, gas and biomass power
stations and she told the audience that engineering
skills were in demand. By 2017, half a million more
manufacturing jobs would be needed, she added. In
the short and medium term, skills for energy,
transport, the Olympics among many others were
crucial.
While Science, Technology,
Engineering and Maths were crucial subjects at
school, she called for more career advice in schools
so young people could better understand what
engineers did.
Industry needed to encourage
apprenticeships and needed support to do so, she
insisted.
University investment was also
important and it was encouraging to see university
applications for engineering going up. The
successful 14-19 diplomas were also crucial, she
continued.
On climate change and low
carbon technologies, she called on government to
give direction on carbon capture and storage due to
its expense and wanted regulatory incentives to
invest in expensive and risky technologies more
generally. She also wanted a binding international
agreement on the price of carbon.
She saw UK public procurement
as a missed opportunity which could be a platform
for innovative new products. The government needed
to be an intelligent customer with more science
skills within the civil service. She ended with a
call for a Chief Engineering Advisor within
government.
Kate Bellingham thought that
engineering was vital to the ambition of the UK.
Young people had preconceived ideas about
engineering which needed to be addressed
permanently, she felt. The kudos of engineering
needed to rise through a collaborative effort.
Science and Maths should not be seen as narrowing
subjects, rather than as ones that open doors.
Excellence should be
celebrated and greater links between engineers and
schools was also vital, she added. Britain should
highlight its qualities and achievements in
engineering, something she said she would do through
the British Engineering Excellence Awards. It was a
collective duty to inspire young people she added.
She went on to highlight that
only 8.7% of UK engineers were women, which placed
the UK near the bottom of the European league table.
However, chemical engineering
was the degree with the third highest prospects for
graduate pay.
David Kester wanted to see the
UK combine its strengths in different sectors of the
economy such as science and technology, financial
services and the creative industries.
He recounted a recent visit to
China where he said he was “astounded" at the huge
political emphasis on design and engineering. It was
clear that China could easily lead the way in this
area and move from “Made in China” to “Designed in
China”.
British industrial policy
should learn from corporate successes such as
Burberry and Apple which had been relentlessly
consumer-led. Policy should be developed putting
people first, he explained. This may mean that an
ageing society led to more telemedicine for example.
He called for universities and
schools to be innovative and reshape themselves out
of silos of teaching and bringing disciplines
together into the mainstream.
In response to questions from
the Royal Academy of Engineering, John Hayes said
that China had seen “the writing on the wall” and
had realised that they would need to compete on
skills and posed the question as to how the Chinese
economy would look in ten years.
He stressed that academic
learning was not the only route and thought that
practical learning was often more challenging that
academic. He felt that practical learning had been
sanitised but the value and worth of making
something was important to stress in schools. He
wanted to work towards a navigable and seductive
vocational education path for young people.
Mr Hayes agreed with a
representative from Engineering UK that
transferrable skills were crucial especially in
financial hardship and said that public attitudes
towards engineering had to shift so young people
could see the opportunities of engineering careers.
Pressed on apprenticeships, Mr
Hayes said that he wanted a sectoral rather than
spacial approach as this was how the economy was
shaped.
He pledged to deliver on
all-age careers advice, while acknowledging the
associated cost and the legislative changes
required.
He told the audience to read a
recent speech by Education Secretary Michael Gove on
vocational education since it outlined the
government’s thinking.
Report by DeHavilland
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