Leading metals employers have called for a step-up in apprentice recruitment, higher skills and better knowledge to enable the metals sector to compete globally.

Stephen Tilsley, Chief Executive of Metsec plc and Chair of MetSkill, and Richard Morley, Managing Director of Caparo Merchant Bar, EEF Sheffield President and MetSkill Vice Chair addressed 200 guests at the joint Metals Industry Awards and EEF Centenary Scholarship Awards evening held by MetSkill at the Cutlers Hall, Sheffield, last week to celebrate the achievements of those working in the sector.

Before announcing the winners of the Metals Industry Apprentice of the Year title, Tilsley congratulated the companies present on training apprentices but issued a challenge to employers across the sector. ‘Let’s raise the bar, let’s step up our intake of apprentices and aim for 20% of our workforce to be made up of ex-apprentices by 2015. That alone will give a major boost to our technical skills base,’ he said. ‘Simply to sustain current business, we need apprentices to replace skilled employees who are retiring or otherwise leaving the industry. We also need them to help us keep pace with advances in technology. And we need to train more.’  

Morley dismissed the notion that the UK had become a post-industrial society, reliant on the service sector for economic growth. ‘This is not true,’ he told the audience. ‘Recently, we have seen how fragile the service industries can be, as the impact of the ‘credit crunch’ is being felt by us all.  I firmly believe that engineering and manufacturing is still at the heart of wealth creation in the UK today and if we are to compete in the global market, we need people with higher skills and better knowledge than ever before.’

The hotly-contested Metals Industry Apprentice of the Year title is awarded to exemplary apprentices who have shown outstanding progress and demonstrated that they have delivered significant and measurable benefits to their company.
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