Lord: Hi-tech industry requires matching skills
THE coming autonomous vehicle revolution will need a matching skills revolution, Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, founder and chairman of WMG, the manufacturing arm of Warwick University, has warned.
And he urged business, particularly big business, to do far more.
Speaking in the House of Lords, he said: “The scale of reskilling needed is enormous, whether in car design, highway maintenance, manufacturing, dealers, commercial transport or regulators. Learning new skills and reskilling workers in sectors that are being transformed by new technologies is increasingly essential.
“Technology is now moving so fast that, if the Government said tomor- row, ‘By 2025, we want cars that are entirely unmanned’, it would require skills, construction and road levies to achieve that, and it would have to involve dealers, suppliers and everybody working in the area. That will not be easy.”
The only way to achieve have a proper plan.
Both the Budget and recent Industrial Strategy White Paper had underlined the importance of skills and lifelong learning to British economic success.
However this represented nothing new.
He added: “We have had a dazzling array of bodies: the Manpower Services Commission, the training and enterprise councils, the Learning and Skills Council, the Skills Funding Agency, and the Learning and Skills Network. Yet despite the reports, the commissions, the councils, the agencies and the networks, the core issues remain. it was to
“Work by the London School of Economics’ Centre for Vocational Education Research shows that the percentage of adult employees in learning or training has been falling since the millennium.
“The truth is that far too few adults at work are getting a good education or earning a widely recognised qualification that will strengthen their long-term career prospects.
“We have seen a 40 per cent decline in the number of people studying for recognised standards such as HNCs, HNDs and foundation degrees. I would not mind if this were the result of limits on poorquality courses. Sadly, we have seen falls in fields such as engineering and computing – precisely where we need growth.”
Lord Bhattacharyya added: “We must prioritise extending the number of higher and advanced apprenticeships. Only one in ten SMEs offers apprenticeships. Business has to put its hand in its pocket to change this. Big business especially has to do more to help its suppliers and its sector.”
Poor levels of skills remains a huge issue for Birmingham and the West Midlands.