Council is wrong to ignore manufacturing apprenticeships
Birmingham City Council’s recent announcement of an apprenticeship scheme for youngsters “in horticulture, cleaning, caretaking, administration and business” has deeply angered a Birmingham manufacturer. Keith Chadwick, managing director of Radshape Sheet Metal explains why.
My father always said if you have an apprenticeship you will never be out of work. I served my time as an apprentice at Rolls Royce and Bentley Motor Corporation in the 1970s, before the Government of the time decided apprentices were no longer what the country needed.
As part of my apprenticeship I went into every department in that company and I learnt every skill in sheet metal working. My father was right. I have never been out of work. I applaud Birmingham City Council for introducing an apprenticeship scheme, but I am disgusted they have chosen not to support apprenticeships in manufacturing.
When I became managing director of Radshape Sheet Metal in 2005 I discovered out of my workforce of 60 skilled and loyal people, there were none under the age of 40.
Our company includes many different skills from laser cutting, forming, welding, fabrications and bonding, using traditional hand crafted skills combined with high tech precision capabilities. Sheet metal working is at the heart of an industry that put the Great in Britain. The skills of our ancestors will be lost forever because of the lack of any decent apprenticeship schemes and particularly the lack of interest from secondary schools which don’t encourage pupils to go into manufacturing. It is this lack of understanding from education which is part of our current problem and the other is because national and local government don’t support such initiatives.
Without apprentices and a proper apprenticeship system for manufacturing, the opportunity to pass on the great skills and experience learnt from generation to generation, will die.
We are then faced with people who are out of work – not everyone wants to or can go into IT jobs or even fast food restaurants.
Four years ago and despairing of trying to find a training scheme, Radshape set up our own, using the skills of employees who are past retirement age to train school leavers. We linked with a college of further education. The only one within a 50-mile radius of Birmingham which could meet our needs was the City of Wolverhampton College. Last year, out of 62 entries for the ISME Sheet Metal Skills Competition, Radshape apprentices won top prizes in three separate categories. Jamie Sproson, aged 18, won the Square to Round Fabrication category with a metal test piece. Tom Gwynn, aged 19, won the Jaguar award for the manufacture and design of a Bentley tail pipe trim. Richard Massey, aged 20, a fourth year apprentice, won the technical award for the design and manufacture of an off road go kart using both traditional and innovative sheet metal skills.
They will all tell you sheet metal working and a manufacturing apprenticeship is fun and exciting. On completion of their apprenticeship at the age of 20, my guys can expect to earn £21,000 per year.
We look for bright young apprentices but each year it becomes more difficult. Qualities we want include good appearance and attitude, enthusiasm, a forward thinking approach and the ability to work as a member of a team. However, they also have to pass certain numeracy and literacy tests for the college to accept them and unfortunately, this is where many lose out.
Training does not stop at Radshape once apprentices have completed their course. Every Friday the whole company stops for an hour at 11.30am and each employee and section looks at how they can improve, through problem solving or re-organising the area. Training is part of Radshape’s culture which has enabled us to become one of only three companies in the UK that manufacture bonded chassis – something which was unknown to us ten years ago.
This training flexibility gives our labour force the mindset for change. Then when a customer asks us to look at a new process we are able to respond quickly and easily.
Which is one of the reasons why Radshape is thriving, gaining new business and going from strength to strength. We will turn over £4m by the end of our financial year at the end of this month (£3.7m last year). That is a 33 per cent growth from £3m in 2005/6. Staff are working overtime and we have more business with existing customers and more enquiries for new business than my Commercial Department can cope with.
Manufacturing is what made this country great. Our talented forefathers produced inventions which are used throughout the world. Why do we automatically think that other countries can manufacture better than we can?
By moving manufacturing out of the UK, we are experiencing poor quality products, admittedly very cheap, but as the old saying goes ‘The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.’
Local and national government must support the manufacturing industry, not financially, but by encouraging a new generation to take an interest in the skills of their forefathers. Secondary schools must encourage pupils to discover the traditional crafts that are inventive and creative and MUST understand business needs.
Manufacturing and its resulting inventions, is what made this country a world leader, so come on Birmingham City Council, show us some support.
