Date: 20 May 2015
Automotive manufacturers are asking supply chain employers to support an industry wide skills survey, to help ensure the skilled workforce needed to boost the proportion of vehicle components manufactured in this country.
New investments, economic recovery, overseas demand and continued technological advances, all point to continued substantial increases in UK vehicle production in the coming years. This means significant opportunities for those domestic suppliers able to respond. (Currently only 40% 1 of components are sourced from the UK).
To ensure the industry is equipped with the right skills to support this growth, the
Automotive Industrial Partnership – the recently formed body that brings the industry and government together to secure the sector’s skills pipeline - is conducting the biggest ever survey of its kind aimed at vehicle manufacturers and the 2,000 2 UK based supply chain employers.
Jo Lopes, Chair of the Automotive Industrial Partnership is calling upon the industry to grasp this opportunity and participate to the full.
“This initiative is unprecedented,” said Jo.
“There have been many other surveys covering the engineering and manufacturing sectors as a whole – but none that drill down to this level of detail and meet the unique needs of automotive manufacturing industry.
“It’s vital that we know the views of employers of all sizes if we are to take the right action now to ensure an effective pipeline of future talent – from new entrant technicians through to the specialist engineers and managers we will need.
“By working together we have the opportunity to mould the future of our industry – and address the very real challenges th at we face.”
The findings will be used by the Automotive Industrial Partnership to determine where, when and how future skills investment should be prioritised. In turn, this will inform the development of learning solutions that are relevant and accessible to the whole industry, including smaller employers.
Among the household names driving the Automotive Industrial Partnership are;
Bentley, BMW, Ford, GKN, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and
Vauxhall.
Not for profit employer led skills organisation Semta, industry trade association the
SMMT working through the Automotive Council also support the Automotive
Industrial Partnership in conjunction with the Industry Forum , the Department for

Business, Innovation and Skills ( BIS) and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).
Employers can complete the survey online, or arrange a face-to-face interview with a researcher.
The survey will be completed by mid July – with the results being published this autumn.
Supply Chain Case Study – Broadway Stampings
Broadway Stampings, an automotive industry supply chain employer based in Milton
Keynes that employs 200 staff, has already completed the survey.
The organisation manufactures a wide range of pressed and welded metal component parts to UK vehicle manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan,
Toyota and Honda.
Tony Peel, Broadway Stamping’s Human Resource Manager, thinks it is vital that other supply chain employers follow their lead and said:
“We pride ourselves on delivering total customer satisfaction in performance, quality and competitiveness. Our employees are our greatest asset – we can only deliver excellence if we have highly skilled staff committed to our culture and values.
“Staff retention and development are vital to our continued success and expansion plans. By working with the Automotive Industrial Partnership to proactively identify and address skills shortage areas, we can collectively secure future growth in the industry that will benefit us all.”
ENDS
1
Source
– “Driving Success – A Strategy for growth and sustainability in the UK automotive Sector”, BIS July 2013
2 Source – SMMT’s Motor Industry Facts 2015
Notes to Editors
 The Employer Ownership Pilot (EOP) is a £340m competitive fund that invited employers, over two rounds, to tell government how they would better use public investment, alongside their own, to invest in the skills of their current and future workforce in order to grow our economy.

The Industrial Partnership is one of the fruits of the Automotive Council, set up in
2009 as a platform for the automotive industry and government to work together to drive the sector to global leadership.

The project is for England and is jointly funded by the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education, and is administered by the Skills Funding Agency. The project was developed in conjunction with UKCES.


The government investment for the Automotive Industrial Partnership totals
£11.3m. This is matched by the auto sector with £19.1m of its own resources
(£16.4m in kind and £2.8m cash).

Semta – www.semta.org.uk
Semta is ‘Engineering Skills for the Future’.
Semta is employerled and responsible for equipping the UK’s vital engineering, science and manufacturing technologies sectors with the skills to compete on the global stage.

SMMT
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) is one of the largest and most influential trade associations in the UK. It supports the interests of the UK automotive industry at home and abroad, promoting a united position to government, stakeholders and the media. www.smmt.co.uk

Industry Forum
Is a manufacturing improvement specialist, bringing together a world-class combination of expertise, insight and best practice to the automotive sector. Supporting leading manufacturing organisations for 20 years, its team of expert practitioners and trainers help major global manufacturers understand and improve capability and capacity.