Unions and employers join forces to tackle shortage of engineers

Iain Elliott (left) and Craig Stuart at HETA’s headquarters in Hull, also pix of apprentices at HETA’s Hull site.

ONE of the country’s biggest trade unions has chosen Yorkshire and the Humber for an event which will bring together politicians, employers and a leading training provider to attract more young people into engineering.

Hull East MP Karl Turner is scheduled to speak at a traineeship showcase along with Humber LEP Chief Executive Kishor Tailor and key figures from the trade union movement.

The breakfast event on Tuesday January 26 will be hosted by the Humberside Engineering Training Association (HETA) at its Hull centre, which is seen as offering a model programme for helping young people into engineering careers.

Graham Randle, who leads the Engaging Young Workers Project for the GMB Midlands and East Coast Region, said: “The event will be used to showcase the HETA Engineering Traineeship scheme which was designed to enable more learners step up to a Level 3 Engineering Apprenticeship. 

“It will give employers a chance to understand the routes into an apprenticeship and will show how the traineeship scheme has created more than 100 job opportunities in the engineering sector in the Humber area over the last 18 months.

“GMB are supportive of the work HETA are doing through their traineeship programme to enable young people to gain employment in high quality engineering apprenticeships.  It is hoped that employers will take the opportunity to come along to this event and see how this programme can fit into their future recruitment strategy.”

The event was organised after Humberside Engineering Training Association (HETA) signed a memorandum of understanding with the GMB in 2015 aimed at promoting high quality training with good rates of pay.

HETA sees the backing of the union as vital in communicating the benefits of training to existing workers and their families. The GMB was attracted by HETA’s strong links with education and employers throughout the Humber region, and by a traineeship programme which places great emphasis on ensuring young people are “work ready.”

The event will begin at 8.30am and conclude by 11am after presentations and a workshop tour which will give guests the opportunity to speak to HETA apprentices. HETA Chief Executive Iain Elliott will be joined by TUC Police Officer Matthew Creagh and GMB Regional Education and Health and Safety Officer Craig Stuart in outlining the rationale behind the partnership.

Karl Turner and Kishor Tailor are expected to speak about the importance of developing high quality engineering opportunities for young men and women and the importance to employers of tackling the shortage of engineers.

A report published last year by the Royal Academy of Engineering said the UK will need more than a million new engineers and technicians by 2020. Also last year, HETA launched a campaign to encourage more women into engineering careers.

HETA’s traineeship programme helps young people with such employability skills as interview techniques and writing CVs on their way towards an advanced apprenticeship.

The partnership and the wider Young Workers Engagement Project were developed after the GMB’s regional officials secured money from the Union Learning Fund.

Mr Elliott said: “Our partnership with the GMB is designed to help to get across the message that training is not something which business do to their employees. It is a collaborative approach. The individuals become better trained and better skilled and the employers have a better workforce.”

Mr Randle said: “We didn’t realise how far HETA is down the road with traineeships. We are telling employers about the opportunities at HETA, which puts people through a very robust programme and produces people who are work ready with less risk.

“We are trying to convince employers that the idea of dealing with shortages through agencies is not the way to go. When people get to the end of a HETA programme we know they are competent to do the job.”

Mr Elliott added: “We will encourage any kind of initiative that gets more people into apprenticeships and gives them the skills to get into sustainable employment, and this is a win-win-win for the union, the employees and the employers.

“We look forward to working with the GMB in the future on other initiatives, promoting apprenticeships and also our traineeship scheme. The GMB see that as a possible exemplar of best practice – how to engage young people and get them started on the traineeship into and apprentice pathway.”