The West Midlands has a strong manufacturing heritage and employs over 272,446 or 10.3% of the West Midlands total workforce. The sector is an important target for inward investment that boost growth in the West Midlands economy. This industry is currently undergoing rapid change as the drive for a clean, green future means that cleaner energy sources are transforming manufacturing and engineering infrastructure including how it is built, powered and maintained. To deliver the required training, upskilling and reskilling to businesses in the region, further education (FE) colleges need to be ahead in technological developments in battery technology, electrification, circular economy and other clean power sources such as hydrogen. This is a tall ask, given the well-documented difficulty in recruiting specialist staff to FE positions.
Strong collaboration led by WMG at the University of Warwick with the collective of West Midlands colleges provided a pragmatic solution to the development of a region-wide plan which includes methods to grow the capacity and capability of the FE colleagues training and lecturing in electrification. WMG have worked with FE colleges in the West Midlands and Warwickshire, and the West Midlands Combined Authority, to develop an Electrification Strategy. This has been developed following a comprehensive survey by WMG of the existing infrastructure and resources to develop a clear picture of the current practice and outlines the critical next steps in the short to medium term.
Key measures in trend are a roll out of specialist training programme comprising 36 programmes to upskill over 300 FE staff in areas such as electro-pneumatics, robot programming and lithium-ion battery recycling. In taking a regional approach, colleges are collaborating to meet the market needs and are starting to develop their areas of specialism. For example, a central Birmingham college is specialising in hydrogen technology whereas a college in the west of the region is more focused on Battery technology. Broader initiatives are emerging and will be piloted. There is an innovative model in which Industry Professionals are linked into colleges in a ‘reservist’ model similar to that used in the armed forces. A fellowship scheme allows college lecturers to link into higher education (HE) and work alongside HE lecturers and benefit from being part of a wider community of practice and a wider knowledge base and expertise.
‘Higher education is often focused upon to provide solutions to capability challenges that face industry, but the reality is that the further education sector does, and will continue to, play a much more important role in delivering reskill and up-skill opportunities to industry as well as skilling the next generation of the UK’s workforce. Ensuring that further and higher education collaborate closely to provide identifiable progression routes, collaborative curriculum design and integrated solutions to employers will be essential in meeting capability challenges. WMG views the support and development of the further education sector as critical in achieving the growth of social value in the region and we are proud of our role in ensuring that colleges are able to provide excellent opportunities to industry and that the region is able to seek investment that aligns with our skills ecosystem. ‘
Dr Benjamin Silverstone, Associate Professor, Workforce Transformation Strategy and Policy, WMG, University of Warwick
