42 www.bfpa.co.uk real commitment to try to move things forward. One thing that should be clarified here is I’m referring specifically to England. Gillian Keegan is only responsible for England. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland all have their own skills regimes. It’s a difficult problem to solve and I think as trade associations, EAMA and its members, including the BFPA, need to guide them. We need to gather our collective strength and ideas and present this to English government in a salient way. We should be clear, helpful and robust – robust in the sense of being logical and evidence-based and focusing on the public interest. There are also issues with the devolved government and it would be useful to have at least a degree of closer working among the nations on training and skills issues. My mandate as EAMA Secretary comes from my immediate members and, of course, the mandate of the member associations comes from their own member firms. I am a member of the National Manufacturing Skills Task Force. I’m also a member of Apprenticeships in Manufacturing, a body set up by the Department of Education early in 2022. EAMA is working more with BEIS on skills, too. The teaching issue A group of EAMA members had a meeting towards the end of 2022 with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) to present our views of the challenges facing manufacturing – part of IfATE’s ‘Big Conversation’. It was heartening to hear complementary messages given by these different members. The basic point we made was that for our sector the system really is failing in many parts of the country. There are problems in many technical colleges, which are unable to attract and retain good-quality teachers. Also, engineering involves the use of expensive equipment, and many colleges either can’t afford this equipment or can’t retain people who know how to use it effectively. This is the current state of play in many parts of England. It is hugely valuable to get the views of EAMA’s member associations as to what they see as the key problems and working towards solutions. We find in some sectors that companies are increasingly coming up with their own training regime because they don’t have an appropriate apprenticeship scheme nearby. In terms of how to solve these issues, there are both national-based and localbased views. Trade associations are nationwide clusters of capability and are able to take a national view, whereas the government is increasingly focused on regional and local clusters and solutions. For example, the government recently introduced an initiative called Local Skills Improvement Plans. These are due to be improved by the middle of 2023 and will involve local training providers focusing their resources. Clearly, there may be challenges here for engineering, which is resource intensive. Launched in September 2022, there are also T Levels in engineering and manufacturing, two-year programmes that are intended to be equal to three A levels and lead on either to apprenticeships or degrees. These are not without teething problems, especially in finding firms willing to offer the required 45-day work placements, but employers will be hearing much more about them ahead of the September 2023 intake. Benefits of modular training On a more positive note, certain associations have in place valuable modular training courses that have become well established and of value to the staff of their member companies. For example, the BFPA’s training courses – part of its Training Academy – offer
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