SKILLS

College’s bold plan to embrace automation

In 2018, the Centre for Cities think-tank predicted a third of jobs in Mansfield could be lost to automation by 2030. But the town and surrounding Ashfield district is fighting back with a vision to turn challenge into opportunity with a new Automated Distribution and Manufacturing Centre, a national hub for automation and robotics training, backed by the Government’s Towns Fund initiative. One of its chief architects Andrew Cropley (pictured), principal and chief executive at Vision West Nottinghamshire College, explains to Dan Robinson what impact this could have.

What are the issues you’re addressing?

When I arrived in Mansfield in May 2019, there were probably 10 occasions in my first two months when I heard the statistic about how many jobs in Mansfield and Ashfield could be lost because of automation, as well as about the “brain drain” issue of people leaving the town to get a degree and high-quality jobs.

Those two factors made me think about how we can embrace automation and turn it into an opportunity, rather than a threat. We can help businesses to attract people that will stay here, raise families and put they money back into the community.

How is the college supporting with the technical skills needed?

Those challenges led us to seek to become a skills centre of excellence in automation and robotics. We received about £660,000 in

funding from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, which we topped up to total just under £1m, in order to create an automation and robotics education package.

This summer, we will launch short and flexible automation and robotics courses for adults, who may wish to retrain or be upskilled by their employer in order to operate and develop new equipment.

In September, we’ll also add automation and robotics as a fourth pathway in our Level 3 BTEC extended diploma in manufacturing and engineering, while the Level 2 engineering programme will include an element of robotics.

What role do businesses have in your skills offer?

We’re working with a range of businesses across the various schemes. We had some old automation kit that we’d planned to throw away but control systems specialist PNE Controls helped by updating the machinery.

The company will also work with us to ensure the courses are high quality, while we’ve also partnered with the automation giant ABB to ensure our trainers are accredited in using ABB robots. Then we’ve also brought Amazon, DHL and Sports Direct around the table to develop our Level 2 and Level 3 curriculum.

What is the Automated Distribution and Manufacturing Centre (ADMC) and how will it complement your new skills programme?

The ADMC is a £30m new development to be built in the Ashfield district – its precise location yet to be decided – by early 2025 that is backed with a £20m grant from the Government’s £3.6bn Towns Fund secured by Ashfield District Council, which received £62.6m in total last month.

This will take what we’re already starting to do an order of magnitude further has developed out of conversations between many stakeholders, including the college, Ashfield District Council and Nottingham Trent University as well as an extensive consultation exercise. It will offer four elements: 1. Drive the skills offer even further by working with more universities in our area 2. Showcase the work of UK businesses producing automation hardware and software through demonstrations, which would usually be made at trade shows or by European companies 3. Test facility for businesses investigating the prospect of automating production lines, without having to create disruption at their existing sites 4. Create a centre for cutting-edge research into automation and robotics, led by university partners.

Andrew Cropley

What is your vision for the impact the ADMC could have on Mansfield and Ashfield?

We’re not going to stop those jobs from being lost as predicted –automation is going to happen.

But my ambition is that rather than people just losing their jobs, we’re going to make sure that when these companies go out to look for people to operate this equipment, they hire from our patch because we’ll have the high-calibre, industrymatched skills to offer.

As local businesses become confident and feel supported to embrace these new technologies, they will become more productive and more competitive, and we can work with them to create well-paid, secure jobs for local people.

Hopefully, we can also attract companies to base themselves here. Pretty much all of Next’s distribution centres are in Yorkshire, so my ambition is for the next one to be here.

We can demonstrate to these firms we’re near the M1, close to the upcoming freeport – and soon we can add the skills base to ensure we get those high-quality jobs. This would allow people in our area to earn the money they need to stay on our patch, and create this notion that students can stay here for higher education.

Preparing children today for the future workforce

The dawn of AI, machine learning, robotics, cloud computing, AR and VR means young people are more likely at risk of job automation within the next decade. Mital Thanki (pictured), founder of Leicester-based tuition provider Spark Academy, explores how education must adapt to prepare our future workforce

FUTURE DESIRABLE SKILL

It’s widely forecasted that AI will accelerate the shift in skills that the future workforce needs. The need for basic physical and manual skills will decline and there will be an increased requirement for workers to have high social and emotional intelligence, as well as advanced technological and cognitive skills.

People with advanced heuristics and cognition will play vital roles in both problem-solving, decisionmaking and establishing the logic behind the evolving machines.

Deconditioning from unconscious bias is also required to ensure ethical integrity.

FUTURE SHIFTS IN WORKFORCE COMPOSITION

Digital innovation means there will be a growing prevalence of independent working by freelancing and contracting, which will boost the emerging gig economy, which experienced significant growth during the pandemic.

In 2018, McKinsey & Co reported that 61% of organisations expected to hire more temporary workers instead of full-time employees.

Employers will have a wide range of applicants to choose from and are not limited geographically when recruiting, with advancing technologies allowing people to work from home efficiently.

It will be commonplace for workers to change careers throughout their lifetime and suited to their desired lifestyle.

While this may mean greater freedom of choice for the individual worker, it also means the security of a stable job, with a regular salary and benefits including pensions and a normal working day routine, will become a thing of the past.

Is our current education system supporting future needs of a largely entrepreneurial workforce? Are we preparing pupil mindset and spirit to adapt to instability? Are we doing enough to build their resilience?

IS THE CURRENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM PREPARING YOUTH FOR THE FUTURE?

Not yet, but this will need to radically evolve. The pandemic has accelerated the use of technology to deliver education through a more blended learning methodology, which uses a combination of technology and traditional pedagogical strategies.

Although this is a positive step in the right direction, there’s a requirement for the educational system to shift its curriculum to develop the desirable skillsets for the future.

From a technological perspective, there’s an absolute necessity for Government to support schools in purchasing the latest software so their students are equipped with the tools to be future-ready.

Embedding digital at the heart of school culture and embracing blended learning in curriculum redesign will be essential in bridging the gap between now and the future.

Schools have placed fantastic efforts into investing in the short term and there will need to be consideration of the long-term strategic view that allows us to explore new models of sustainable, affordable and high-quality blended learning.

Mital Thanki