The latest weekly issue of the Birmingham Post (September 2 – 8th) carried the headline ‘90,000 jobs – but no one to fill them’ referring to a lack of skills and interest in working in the region’s manufacturing sector.
According to the report which continues on page three, over the next five years the West Midlands will see around 90,000 hard-to-fill manufacturing jobs become available, as the UK’s buoyant industrial base turns out more products than in 1966 when employment in the sector was at its peak.
The report also highlights the affects of an ageing workforce and a lack of fresh blood in the industry with some companies resorting to bringing people out of retirement to fill roles as they could not find suitably qualified younger people. All this is against the backdrop of 221,000 people being out of work across the region.
The research was undertaken by the University of Birmingham and warns that the sector has been blemished by a negative image with fewer and fewer younger people considering it as a career option. Professor John Bryson, Chair of Enterprise and Economic Geography at the University warned that ‘the public perception of manufacturing was negative and stuck in the past, meaning young people were being put off the sector at school’.
However he goes on to say that ‘there are vast numbers of potential job opportunities out there - as long as individuals are sold manufacturing as a potential career option and as long as schools, further education colleges and universities highlight manufacturing as something that is desirable’.
Grad Central has been successful in placing many graduates into roles within the manufacturing industry and in fact, it has been one of the sectors that has seen significant employment opportunities this year alongside roles in the creative and engineering industries.
With over 20,000 graduates registered with Grad Central there is a wealth of talent available, so the picture may not be as bleak as the newspaper report makes out. If you are one of the many manufacturing companies in the Midlands struggling to fine the right person with the right skills for your company, then we probably have the answer.
One worrying element of the report was the fact that many companies could eventually close their doors because of the skills shortages. The West Midlands and the economy as a whole needs this important sector to remain strong, and by finding the right candidates through Grad Central, together we can ensure that new blood is injected into manufacturing and the ‘hard-to-fill’ vacancies are ‘easy-to-fill’ in the future.