Ahead of National Manufacturing Day this Thursday, Lisa Bingley, Operations Director of the MIRA Technology Institute (MTI) and Board Member of ERS Hub, says ‘talking more’ and stronger engagement is key to filling the skills gap in electrification.
There’s an iconic British Telecom advert from the mid-90s where Bob Hoskins, a famous actor of his generation, utters the words “it’s good to talk”.
Those four words and 13 letters are exactly what we need more of in the skills arena as we look to navigate the changing but equally exciting landscape of electrification.
Conversations, they’re great. Let’s have more of them as we all come together to identify the gaps in competences, the routes people need to take to fill current and future jobs and the qualifications we need to standardise, so we have, in essence, a clear framework to work with.
This is where the ERS Hub has had some strong success stories. We have successfully been able to get colleges, universities, training providers, employers and, importantly, potential workers on the same page and beginning to understand what the other needs.
The PEMD body of knowledge has been a fantastic piece of work, with thousands of courses and job roles now clearly defined on the interactive platform every week.
There are also now routes for young people and existing workers to follow that gives them an understanding of what skills they need to fulfil certain jobs, whether that is battery design or energy storage technician to thermal management and software and controls.
All of this was discussed at the CENEX Expo 2024 earlier this month, where the great and good of Net Zero and Connected Automated Mobility met over two action-packed days.
Deepark Farmah said it best during the ‘Bridging the Talent Divide: Equipping the UK for the Net-Zero Transport Revolution’ panel session.
His quotes summed up my current mood and went something along the lines of ‘Skills are important for driving innovation and enhancing technology. Building a strong talent pipeline is key to ensuring we are ready for the electrified future, where adaptability and expertise will lead the way to sustainable progress.
‘Our audience, their environment, and their demands have shifted significantly. To stay relevant, we must evolve and adapt the way we deliver education to meet the changing needs of our future talent and industries.’
Specialist Skills
There has been lots of promise, but this is just the start. And we have a lot more work to do. My background is as a toolmaker apprentice and then graduate engineer, spending a considerable ‘chunk’ of my career crash testing expensive cars.
Fun as it was, the last six years have been involved in creating courses and overseeing training requirements for industry, with my most recent role developing and spearheading the MIRA Technology Institute.
The MTI as we are commonly known is the result of a unique collaboration led by North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College and its partners HORIBA MIRA, Coventry University, the University of Leicester, and Loughborough University.
We are helping to create specialist skills in autonomous and connected vehicles, cybersecurity, and tellingly electrification, where I sit on the ERS Hub advisory board.
New Levels
Talking more has got us to an exciting position in the provision of skills for this rapidly developing sector.
T-Levels are an exciting introduction to our world, and I believe are key to helping give potential employees the technical knowledge they require to fit seamlessly into a company’s operation. Different to apprenticeships, most of their time is spent on theory, with a vitally important work placement required to complete the course.
This is where employers come in. They’re not covering wages like you do on other vocational courses, but we do need businesses to invest time and effort into giving individuals the real-world experience and softer skills.
Engagement in STEM activities is another important piece of work. At the MTI, we held a speed dating networking event earlier this year that attracted 70 pupils.
They took part in quickfire meetings lasting just seven minutes, which was enough time to quiz 30 employers from the engineering world about career routes and what jobs entail. I can’t stress how important this level of commitment is from industry.
Academia and training providers are investing time too. We’re tweaking courses and introducing new qualifications all the time in response to what firms are telling us and the ERS Hub continues to be a major ally in this.
One of the key challenges is retraining existing staff for example. We listened and now have a foundation and advanced course for taking mechanical engineers and giving them the skills they need to move into the electrical arena. JLR is already tapping into this offer, and we could well roll it out to others.
There has been so much progress in electrification skills in the last three years and the appetite is there – from all parts of the sector – for this platform to be built on. We can’t do it in isolation, so remember… it’s good to talk!
About the author:
In her role as operations director for the MTI, Lisa Bingley led on the initial development and the build phase of the MTI and is now responsible for its overall management including building links between partners and industry.
She is a Board member of the ERS Hub and is using her engineering background to support skills development and bringing together collaboration in education and industry.
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