Unite to fight job blight

Time was when everyone knew someone who busied themselves in their room taking apart circuit boards and wielding soldering irons.

But the electronics boom is over and electrical engineers are scarce in any industry, let alone food and drink processing. The drought is being felt across all disciplines, from mechanical engineers to chemical engineers and process managers. And with the icy tendrils of recession slowly creeping across the land, it's likely to get tougher.

Small to medium-sized enterprises wrestling with this issue shouldn't imagine they're alone. A recruitment specialist for a major confectionery manufacturer, with factories across the UK, confides: "It used to be that if we put an ad in the right area and the pay was good, we would get someone, but over the years it's getting harder and harder."

Companies are becoming increasingly desperate, says professor Paul Acarnley, manager of the E3 Academy, a scheme created to swell the ranks of engineering students. "They are saying, 'if an engineer writes for a job, we'll create one for him/her - and we'll take whoever we can get'."

Recruitment problems start at universities and colleges, says Acarnley, a former lecturer in electrical engineering at Newcastle University. "There's been a gradual decline in intake there over the past 15 years, although there has been slight improvement in the past two years." There are currently 50-60 students signing up for engineering courses at Newcastle University, whereas 15 years ago there were around 120. Of those, 90% were from the UK. It's only 50% now, says Acarnley.

Jack Matthews, chief executive of food and drink sector skills council Improve, warns: "We need another 30,000 engineers and technicians between now and 2014." According to data revealed at the E3 Academy's launch, the proportion of engineering students fell from 11% in 1998 to seven per cent this year. Conversely, demand for engineers has rocketed, because of increasing automation, says Acarnley.

And woe betide processors with plants in one of the UK blackspots with low population density. Our source says: "The more remote the site, the harder it is to fill. Then you've got areas where you've got more and more competition, even from parallel industries."

It is well-established that potential recruits to food and beverage processing see it as unglamorous and boring, but engineering has similar problems in its own right. "It's seen as difficult, because it's based on subjects that are seen as hard at school, such as maths and science," says Acarnley.

Even those who opt to study engineering don't always take up engineering roles, says Ian Bowman, general manager, marketing at Siemens Automation and Drives. "Well over half the people who graduate in engineering get attracted to other industries where their skills are in demand."

Nor are overseas workers necessarily a reliable source of recruits. Our source tells us: "We went to Poland for two years and recruited at the technical operations level, for which you need English. But people who can speak the language are over-qualified for lower level jobs. And their experience has not been hands on. For manager roles, we have to start them on a lower level before they can work their way up."

As with the lack of food technologists and food scientists, experts say no one approach can adequately address the predicament. But substantial initiatives are underway.

Attracting young people to study for food and drink engineering roles before degree age is crucial, says Matthews. "The new Diploma in Engineering and Product Design [for 14-19 year-olds] is aimed at those with vocational ability to pick engineering as their career."

London South Bank University plans to host a Spring event with the London Engineering Project to involve children and parents in a food laboratory exercise. It hopes such initiatives could build interest in studying engineering in the food industry, but is calling for more buy-in from processors.

Matthews says it'll take a while to build student numbers, so at the same time it's wise to consider those in the industry with transferrable skills. "Process and semi-skilled workers may be able to make the transition to fully-skilled technicians or engineers. That's why adult apprenticeships will be vital. 80% of those employed in the sector in 2014 are employed there now."

Providing degree options offering the practical skills firms want plus incentives for students is also important. The E3 Academy, set up in May this year, is one example of beefed up teaching to meet these needs. Self-financing, attracting sponsorship from firms such as Siemens Automation & Drives, the project does not have to pitch for government cash. It offers an undergraduate package including a £2,500 annual bursary and reimbursement of tuition fees for electrical energy engineering students at Newcastle or Nottingham University studying everything from power electronics to electrical drives.

In addition, Improve is working with Semta, the sector skills council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies, to devise a food processing apprenticeship in this sphere. The plan would "halve the time to find skilled craftsmen", says Matthews.

But processors can't expect to sit back and wait for graduates, then bleat that they aren't practically equipped for their jobs, he says. They must get involved in sponsoring students and providing input into course content, possibly drawing on existing internal training standards. "We want to look at how employers design qualifications and attract people to move to engineering, how they could reduce training costs and have learning done on site that could build on existing learning. Everything is in place, but we need employers to stand up and say 'we want to do this' and work with others to make it happen."

Many groups are tackling the situation in isolation, so more co-ordination is needed, says Matthews, and Improve could provide this. He urges co-operation between government, industry and satellite bodies. "By coming together we can start looking at a solution that might work for everybody." FM

Reaseheath milks funds to enhance training

Reaseheath College is investing massively in training to cement its role as the Centre of Vocational Excellence for dairy processing.

The Cheshire-based college is injecting £51M into its facilities and is pitching for more from the Learning and Skills Council and the North West Development Agency.

One recent example of its services was an eight-day intensive course on dairy technology for Tetra Pak engineers. Staff from countries such as Russia and Lebanon attended the latest round of the training programme.

The package includes 32 hours of dairy science, technology and processing theory and 32 hours of practical work making cheese, butter, ice cream, yoghurt and UHT milk. Other topics include dairy composition, microbiology and pasteurisation.

Some products made in the teaching sessions are entered in the Nantwich International Cheese Show or sold locally in farmers' markets and retail outlets.

Chris Edwards, dairy training and development manager at Reaseheath, says: "Tetra Pak understands the need to train its engineers in a thorough understanding of the processing factors affecting any application in engineering. Dairy products can be spoiled easily if the engineers are not fully aware of these factors."

Edwards says the college, which has held the course four times per year for almost 20 years, gets spin-off benefits as well. "We keep ourselves up to speed with some phenomenal advances in concept process and packaging solutions."

He says it's so popular with Tetra Pak that it's usually booked up 12 months in advance. "We get everybody from technical stores managers to technical design engineers. A lot of their business is in processing innovation. To get that right you have to be familiar with the food market."

The students are excited most about upping efficiency and cutting waste, he says. "They come from a food technology viewpoint. We pass on knowledge of food's intrinsic properties and link it to their knowledge of engineering, such as why dairy ingredients separate or why cheese doesn't set."