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

 

 

Updated July 2012

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