Mission to inspire the next set of engineers

Speaking at a parliamentary event, the Minister for Business Mark Prisk revealed plans to build on the success of his department’s See Inside Manufacturing initiative in the automotive sector.

Last year’s pilot scheme allowed young people to tour state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities to help change their perceptions about a career in industry.

“I want to get this right out across the whole of industry,” said Mr Prisk. He added that he wants to create “a default position that most youths in most years have a chance to see what a modern career is all about in modern industry”.

Mr Prisk was addressing a round table debate hosted by the Associate Parliamentary Manufacturing Group and attended by cross-party politicians, business people and journalists.

He wants to boost the image of manufacturing and lift the status of the engineer as part of the Government’s wider efforts to rebalance the UK economy.

Mr Prisk said: “Although one might think about the image or promotion of manufacturing as being a bit superficial, actually it is the industrialists themselves who say that if we are going to compete in the future we need to be able to recruit the brightest and the best.”

He added: “It’s about the perceived quality and future of taking a career in this particular part of the economy.”

Emma Bridgewater, who runs a pottery business employing 200 people in Stoke on Trent, told the event that “manufacturing is intensely satisfying” but added that “there is a real problem to persuade young people to come into the industry” because they do not see it as a job for life.

Deborah Meaden, the entrepreneur and investor famous for her role in the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, said she became “intensely” interested in manufacturing after buying a textiles company in Somerset called Fox Brothers.

Ms Meaden said: “This has become a passion for me quite late on.” She added: “We don’t have to change the industry, we have to change the perception of the industry.”

She said she was worried that entrepreneurs do not see manufacturing as a “sexy” sector.

“It is not seen as attractive, as a thing of the future. I worry that this is going to get worse. Young people are being taught service skills and they want to be designers, but there will be nothing to design if we don’t make it.

“If we don’t talk about our successes, people don’t see opportunity. We have got to talk about success.”

Barry Sheerman, the Labour MP for Huddersfield, echoed her concerns. He said the West Yorkshire town has a strong industrial base yet it only accounts for 10 per cent of the workforce.

“If we go back to when Britain was the workshop of the world, there were two ingredients,” said Mr Sheerman.

“One, we had the technology and innovation. But the critical element was the entrepreneurs. How do we get more entrepreneurs to come into manufacturing?”

Meg Munn, the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley, said enterprising people with innovative ideas cannot find investment. She added: “Getting the money to get to the point where they can start manufacturing is enormously difficult.”

John Stevenson, the Conservative MP for Carlisle, blamed this on a lack of knowledge in banks. He said: “Bankers understand the housing market. They know what they are lending against. When it comes to manufacturing, they have no real idea what they are valuing.”

Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, said successive gove rnments have “absolutely” neglected manufacturing for the last two or three decades and must bear responsibility for its image.

He added: “The irony is that the public gets it. They certainly understand that as a country we need to manufacture stuff.”

Ms Bridgewater said: “We have been very good at it and we have still got great strengths, but in China and India they are investing on scales that we couldn’t dream of and we will get left behind.”

n Listen to highlights of the debate online on Yorkshire Post’s Business Talk.