Motors and fans supplier, Ebm-papst, has issued a clarion call for the UK to urgently replace its engineer stock as demographics and competing career options take their toll.
Addressing delegates at yesterday’s (9 May) Automotive Supply Chain Magazine Congress at the British motor racing circuit of Silverstone, Ebm-papst (UK) managing director, Gareth Jones, underlined the pressing need to act.
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“The projection is in the next three years more than 96,000 engineers will retire in the UK and we are not doing enough to replace them – we already have a shortage,” he said.
If you go to Germany engineering is considered a profession – engineering in the UK is not seen as a very sexy or attractive industry.
That shortage will be starkly underlined if the UK returns to the volume it enjoyed pre-crisis, with Jones predicting a potential of 2m cars by 2020 and highlighting the need for “affordable finance” to invest in the extra production.
OEMs could be first in line to attract the increasingly limited pool of graduates, with Jones contrasting the allure of Jaguar Land Rover or BMW for example, as opposed to a Tier 2 or Tier 3 supplier, leading component manufacturers to look further afield.
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By GlobalData“We have to go outside the UK and visa restrictions mean talented people are not there,” said Jones.
However, the Ebm-papst managing director emphasised the improved UK economic situation compared with the dark recessionary days of only a few years ago, that is aiding business.
“From a financial perspective, the fiscal landscape is considerably better than it was in 2008,” said Jones. “We have seen a number of changes in tax credits [while], in the last budget the credit system was raised up to 10% and of course we have got a lot of government initiatives such as the Regional Growth Fund.
“There are funding schemes available, but the difficulty is going through traditional routes such as the bank [ing] sector. Quite frankly, that has been inept, they are risk-averse. We are being asked to invest in tooling, but we don’t own the tools. You try to explain that to a banker.”
Despite the finance challenges, Jones did praise the various initiatives undertaken by the UK Automotive Council with support from vehicle manufacturers and Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable.
