A skills-first approach to today’s challenges

Education and skills are a major focus for Siemens. We help address some of society’s most complex problems, and to do so we need the brightest minds and a wide diversity of thought.

As part of a recent internal campaign on apprenticeships, I had the privilege of being shadowed by one of our apprentices for a day.? Lucas Laurie who is part of our sales team in our Digital Industries business, joined me for a 24hour stint that included time with external consultants, internal 1-2-1 dialogues, exec team meetings, a tour of our Electrium facility in Wythenshaw, and the finals of the Siemens Halle International Conductors Competition (... and no, I don't do that everyday??)?

We are a major employer of apprentices and, as a former apprentice myself I’m a huge advocate of on-the-job learning. During our time together it was great to learn about Lucas’s own experience starting with us and hearing about the range of projects he’s already been involved with at his time with the business.

It also acted as a reminder of how valuable it is for Siemens, and other businesses like us, to support different routes into the world of work.

Putting it simply, the UK needs a skills-focussed approach when it comes to addressing decarbonisation, equity, and growing our economy. Without the right talent we will falter on each of these major societal issues.

Quantity and quality

To put the obstacles into perspective, right now, the UK needs more than 200,000 engineers each year with Level 3+ engineering skills to meet demand. It’s a tall order, especially when you consider how rapidly technology is changing the way engineers solve problems and the hurdles that presents for the education sector in keeping pace with teaching new, particularly digital, skills. Of course, each year we underperform in attracting new engineers into the sector, it becomes far harder for industrial businesses to grow.

But it’s not just a problem that sheer volume will solve alone. Increasingly, representation is one key route to industry being better equipped to deliver projects too.?

Across the board we need more women joining the profession alongside those from the full range of ethnicities that make up our society to be fully cross-sectional and equal. Currently only 24% of engineers come from lower socio-economic backgrounds too.?

Getting to grips with different routes into the profession and supporting them as employers is critical to this. Of course, in doing so we can help support a ‘just transition’ where we bring all people with us as businesses and society transform.?

Not just that, creating a diverse labour market is good business sense. Projects now require different perspectives, different approaches and, fundamentally, different voices around the table. It’s not just engineering roles too. We need to ensure every function within our businesses aims to broaden diversity of thinking.

A Skills for Industry strategy

To address our skills challenges, businesses across industry need to be supporting any and all routes into the world of work. There’s been some progress in dispelling misconceptions around apprenticeships, but they’re still undervalued in many ways. We need to continue to champion them alongside traditional university degrees in equal measure.?

And, for those who choose to go to a university, we need to ensure that qualifications represent the working world, and that industry and universities can work together to produce candidates that have the necessary skillsets.

We also must support a broad and balanced curriculum in schools, with more focus on meta-skills like teamwork and communication. Industry also has a part to play in supplementing the classroom with applied learning that can help signpost pathways into vocational careers.

I’d like to thank Lucas for joining me for the day, which was yet a further reminder of the wide array of talent and thinking at Siemens at all levels and the opportunities we’d miss if we didn’t engage with different routes into work.