The most inspirational individuals working in British industry in 2018, according to The Manufacturer Top 100 have been revealed. The list was announced at the exclusive event in Liverpool’s Exhibition Centre, and it is our great pleasure to announce that our Director, Andrea Rodney was featured for the second time.

When directly translated, an apprentice means ‘one who is learning’. It is a state of being that Einstein argues should be a perpetual condition of life. The moment we stop doing it, Einstein says - rather dramatically - we start dying. Well, our industry hasn’t died but the lack of apprenticeships and quality training over the last few decades has certainly created the disease now commonly referred to as the “skills gap”.

Recent figures have shown that aircraft production within the United Kingdom is set to supersede previous records; a clear indication that the industry remains quite strong. As a testament to this observation, statistics illustrate that the total number of aircraft produced by July 2018 is no fewer than 809 units. Experts believe that the revenue generated from such figures could equate to as much as £15 billion – not a bad little earner. To put these observations into perspective, the aggregate number of air vehicles delivered during the 2017/18 fiscal year was nearly 1,500 units. If present statistics continue, 2018/19 may very well rise above and beyond previous figures.

The latest release of the 'Industrial Trends Survey' by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) gives an insight into how the UK manufacturing sector is holding up in light of internal and external factors by analysing the data supplied by 379 UK manufacturers.

It is often the “tool room” that gets over looked within a machine shop. It’s that little area where the magic happens, and everything gets fixed or fettled, but often it’s run by amazing engineers who can just work around any issues the machines have and so it’s where the oldest machines tend to reside.

Finally, after almost 5 years of job losses and heartbreak in the oil and gas sector, things finally seem to be on the way up again. New studies show that, despite over 400,000 job losses in recent years, a dramatic rise in growth opportunities is expected by most of the oil and gas companies operating in the UK and offshore.

A few months ago, we had one of those e-mails. The ones we often tend to bypass to get to the e-mails from customers or contacts but this one peaked my interest.

The Governments Industrial Strategy has been discussed and debated over recent months and as several have said, there are many great ideas but fewer specific commitments as to how and when these will be achieved.  

Recruitment has changed so much over the years, mainly due to the massive skills gap our industry is facing but also the meteoric rise of recruitment agencies serving the sector.

Last month our director Andrea delivered a keynote speech to the National Manufacturing Debate hosted at Cranfield University. The event bought together professionals from several fields to discuss challenges facing the industry, in particular whether the government’s Industry Strategy goes far enough to support growth in UK manufacturing.