November/ December 2021

25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION FOCUS 44 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS November/December 2021 www.hpmag.co.uk workforce, Rebecca Galley, managing director, Hydroscand UK, believes a key question we need to ask is what will attract the next generation into our industry? “Many young people are interested in STEM subjects, which can of course lead to profitable and fruitful lifelong careers as well as being a major benefit for the future of the UK economy,” she says. “However, being interested in science, programming computers and maybe wanting to cure cancer or clean up our oceans isn’t necessarily going to make these young people want to gravitate towards the fluid power industry. We currently have a recruitment issue within many sectors of UK industry, but things could become a lot worse over a comparatively short period of time unless we make fluid power more appealing to the younger generation. From a marketing perspective, part of this relates to establishing a more modern, attractive image for fluid power that reflects how it has changed for the better in many cases. I recently spoke to students at a local school about hydraulics, and it was when I moved on to the subject of things such as robots, cranes, diggers and tractors that they really took an interest. So, it was important to get across the message that while there are careers for budding hose technicians, there are also rewarding jobs to be had related to design, automation technology, customer service and so on.” Galley makes the point that many companies in our industry, particularly the larger ones, are supporting apprenticeship schemes and running training and development programmes. “At Hydroscand UK, we run our own internal training and development programmes,” she explains. “We currently have an apprentice and are looking to take on more in the near future. From an education perspective, 2020 saw the UK government introduce the first T-Level courses as technical-focused alternatives to A-levels. I think this is a positive move. There are also numerous excellent schemes, for example STEM Ambassador Programme, Primary Engineer and schemes from Make UK.” Edward Barrington - Slack & Parr’s managing director and an apprentice at the company 25 years ago - recalls that around the time he joined, the company was taking on approximately 10 apprentices each year and the government scheme covered all the costs. By comparison, he adds that in 2021 Slack & Parr receives very little in comparison and has had to reduce the intake to four new recruits per year purely due to the spiralling costs. “The upside from that is that we select the highest quality of applicants and continue to train excellent young men and women into internal roles with great success,” he says. Middleton-Duff believes apprenticeships are immensely important for companies in order to ensure the right skillsets are in place for the longer term, and also to encourage young people to enter our business knowing that they have a secure, lifelong career ahead of them. “We recently appointed a new operations engineer,” she explains. “As a team, our current daily tasks include preparing the compressors and other equipment for dispatch to our distributors or directly to customers. We also ensure all the spares orders are distributed. Out in the field, our engineer maintains, services and installs compressors and dryers at customers’ sites throughout the UK and Ireland. To enhance his compressor knowledge further, he is undertaking e-learning British Compressed Air (BCAS) training courses; this includes working towards completion of the DipCAM qualification, which sets out to provide a comprehensive technical grounding in the principles of the operation of compressed air systems.” With regard to BCAS training courses in general, Middleton-Duff believes they are invaluable for companies in our industry. “I know that our engineer thinks the BCAS courses are very well-designed for both face-to-face and online tuition, and they’ve really helped him to fill in any gaps in his knowledge. Since he joined, he has proved himself to be very dedicated and keen to learn. He already has a solid understanding of compressor and dryer technology and is excellent in serving customers. My goal is for the company to take on more apprentices to represent us through various professional disciplines – including accountancy, admin, marketing, warehouse management etc.” Challenges of the pandemic Anderton considers there are certainly challenges in the current labour market, adding that since the pandemic the difficulties and increased cost of hiring is greater than before. Anderton comments that legislation has also increased, with Slack & Parr now having to perform rights to work checks and offer full contracts up front rather than after a trial period, which, he states, all increases the cost and complexity of hiring. Anderton explains that candidates’ salary expectations have increased, and the amount of counter offers from existing employers are like nothing the company has seen in the past. “Hence, it is difficult to balance the costs and the output,” he says. Slater makes the point that the advancement in machinery has de-skilled some of the work, but it has driven the need for a few very highly skilled individuals to set the machines in the first place. She also considers that information technology advancements have made a huge difference to clerical manning levels. “Until very recently, following a sudden 20% increase in sales, we have needed no more people in the office than we did 25 years ago when our turnover was a third of what it is now,” she explains. “Sadly, it has become more painful to employ people in an environment where employees hold all the aces in terms of employment law. Dropping the official retirement age was a particular problem for us, especially when we were already flexible with the people we wanted to retain. EU regulations and the gold-plated form the British always adopt have also made business for a relatively small company very difficult. These problems will apply to all companies in all walks of life and are major barriers to SMEs.” A passion for both education and health and safety On the subject of a modern fluid power workforce, Farmer believes there has never been a better time to engage with government on the skills and training agenda. “They are highly receptive to supporting companies that wish to put their time and resources into training a workforce that is equipped for the new decade,” he says. “I have a keen passion for both Rob Bartlett, CEO, BVAA. Rebecca Galley, managing director, Hydroscand UK.