For many years there have been concerns about an engineering skills gap in the forklift industry but somehow the industry has managed to get by. However, there are reasons to suppose that if nothing is done to encourage apprenticeship schemes more meaningfully, and soon, the forklift industry could see its prospects seriously harmed. Moreover, of course, it is not just the forklift industry’s prospects at stake but the whole UK economy.
Britain, arguably, is on the cusp of an industrial renaissance, to a large extent influenced by changing global logistics and other forces. Much of Britain’s industrial decline accelerated after 1980 as overseas manufacturers undercut Britain on price and so the economy shifted gear to one dominated by services. Then, from the 1990s, Britain’s large companies outsourced their manufacturing operations to the Far East, in particular, lured by their much lower production costs. This, from the apprenticeship’s viewpoint, was a body blow because it was mainly these companies which had their own UK apprenticeships. The SMEs, then as now, could often not afford these training schemes. The combined result is that there is now a serious engineering skills gap in Britain which is holding back further investment in the country’s manufacturing sector, even by foreign investors anxious to expand in the UK.
A prime reason why off-shoring production functions to the Far East is losing its appeal is the many hidden, overlooked costs. These include poor quality issues, poor responsiveness from far off plants, wholesale intellectual property thefts, long production runs and exposure to natural calamities. But the worst of these, perhaps, is the rapidly soaring Far East labour and distribution costs, which now mean it is cheaper, for example, for Britain to produce high end apparel than import them from China, India and Bangladesh. Consequently, many British companies are now bringing back production to the UK but if that trickle is to become a raging river then the skills gap must be addressed.
There are clear signs that the forklift industry is pushing hard to enhance the value and image of apprenticeship schemes but will this be enough without much more Government support, especially at the school level which currently sees the majority of pupils leaving with aspirations that are more focussed on a services economy? Engineering apprenticeships have two main attractions for school leavers: they earn while they learn and avoid the high university tuition costs. Moreover, they can lead to a rewarding career all the way to management level.
The leading forklift companies like Linde, Jungheinrich, Toyota and Barloworld (Briggs) are investing heavily in apprenticeships and the BITA Academy opened a year ago has got off to a good start. BITA’s outgoing president, Tim Waples, believes that the close involvement of employers in forklift truck apprenticeships is a crucial success factor for the industry. Linde echoes this sentiment by increasing the number of available apprenticeships this year owing to an increase in applications. Its core programme is designed by the FLTA and has been shaped to address the skills gap within the engineering sector.
Surely, however, much more must be done at school level to make a career in manufacturing more attractive. This may mean a root and branch overhaul of the entire education system which currently sees GCSE examinations not only skewed to an arts based scenario but arguably a discredited dumbkopf version of its predecessor, the GCE ‘O’ level.
A successful manufacturing renaissance would lead to a much healthier forklift industry as an expanding manufacturing base, fuelled by exports, would boost the industry’s output. The forklift industry is doing its bit but without more help from the Government a golden opportunity could be missed for the industry and the country. Quite simply, Britain has no choice but to rebalance the economy more towards a manufacturing base, otherwise its serious balance of payments deficit, enhanced by a reliance on a services economy, will have unimaginable consequences.
Warehouse & Logistics News
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