Recruitment issues on agenda as manufacturing and engineering giants meet

Advanced manufacturing and engineering are priorities for the Hertfordshire economy, but a large majority of businesses in the sector are struggling to recruit.

Discussions around what needs to change formed part of the Chamber’s summit for the two industries at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in Stevenage.

Hertfordshire’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) report, published last year by the Chamber, evidenced that engineering is a “critical part of the regional economy”, although a survey carried out to inform the report showed 84 per cent of Herts businesses in the sector experienced problems recruiting.

Amanda Freeland, who joined the Chamber at the start of the year to head up the LSIP project, said: “Engineering is a lynchpin of the county’s economy, but it is facing challenges in recruiting the right people to continue growing and developing.

This summit was a great opportunity for our key players to come together and share ideas about how to move forward and about what support they might need.”

The Chamber organised the summit, sponsored by FB Chain, to enable business leaders to share ideas, latest information and insights.

Guest speakers at the summit were FB Chain Managing Director Peter Church and IET Chief Executive and Secretary Ed Almond. Peter spoke about how FB Chain automated and digitised production, which was key to growth from £1million to £14million of sales, with the number of employees increasing from 12 to 36. FB Chain, based in Letchworth, produces leaf chain, anchor bolts, chain kits for forklift trucks, pins and pulleys for the materials handling industry.

Ed, whose IET represents more than 154,000 engineering and technology professionals in 148 countries, discussed the challenges and opportunities of engineering in the future.

Qualiturn Managing Director Nick Groom and CSD Automation’s Nigel Grant were also at the summit as panellists.

Chamber Managing Director Donna Schultz said: “Recruitment remains a serious issue across the county – and I know the work we are doing with LSIP should help us find solutions to this ongoing problem. It was interesting hearing from people at the event on how we move this sector forward.

“I’d like to thank all our speakers, sponsors and panellists, as well as everyone who came and helped to make the summit so successful.”

Other summits coming up include the Life Sciences Summit on July 9, the Creative Services Summit on September 25, and the Artificial Intelligence Summit on November 11.

Find out more at https://my.hertschamber.com/events