Government needs to support vocational training

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 9, 2001

The Government needs to be more supportive of firms willing to participate in vocational qualifications and training schemes, a West Midlands' engineering company has warned

The Government needs to be more supportive of firms willing to participate in vocational qualifications and training schemes if it going to bridge the skills gap and support the future of Britain's manufacturing industry, a West Midlands' engineering company has warned.

The comments from Mike Richards, managing director at the Wolverhampton based press tool manufacturer, Geometric Form Tools Limited, part of the Accura manufacturing support services group, add to the growing tide of dissatisfaction amongst the engineering industry regarding the damaging effects of the skills shortage.

Despite glowing reviews of vocational programmes from the businesses who use the schemes, only a fraction of small firms in the UK use national vocational qualifications (NVQs) and modern apprenticeships (MAs).

Mike Richards is an advocate of vocational training schemes.

He said: "The apprentice scheme has been one of the most important and valuable systems in place at Geometric over the past 25 years.

With the current skills shortage it is vital that we think long term and ensure that procedures are in place to not only attract young recruits to manufacturing, but to give them all the necessary support and training." "In today's competitive employment climate, offering a structured training programme is an important factor for the recruitment and retention of key staff and the success of our apprentice scheme has provided our company with a stable workforce of top-class employees.

Our low staff turnover levels ensure a continuity which has significant advantages for Geometric - our staff understand the business inside out, we have less need to retrain and our customers can be assured of a quality service." Mr Richards commented: "The benefits speak for themselves, but many small businesses are unable to put their staff through vocational training because they cannot afford to foot the bill.

Visible financial support for companies has all but disappeared over the last ten years, a sad indictment of rhetoric from successive Governments, with increasing training budgets." The cost of programmes can vary enormously, from around ?600 for an NVQ course, to up to ?50,000 to put one employee through a three-year MA.

Mr Richards added that existing Government subsidies do not stretch far enough, and as funding levels can vary from year to year, employees who enrol their staff on a three year programme can be left facing much higher bills than expected.

He said: "On top of the financial implications, many small engineering companies lack the internal resources to support apprentice schemes and vocational training.

Most businesses in our industry do not carry large administrative structure and are unable to appoint a dedicated person to organise training programmes." "The Government needs to target money at the ultimate users to encourage more small businesses to invest in training and apprenticeship schemes.

If the Government is serious about increasing productivity, then this is where it should be focussing its attention, for the good of the whole UK economy.".