on Electronics Systems Skills Provision

Results of the Joint Semta / UKEA Survey 1 on Electronics Systems Skills Provision

Results of the Joint Semta / UKEA Survey on Electronic Systems Skills Provision RR / FINAL / 03.03.2014 For more information on this report, contact: Roger Rogowski ESCO Executive Secretariat Phone: +44 1959 561345 Email: roger.rogowski@esco.org.uk 2

Contents Introduction... 4 Study participant profile... 5 Recruiting technical staff... 6 Engaging with schools and other learning centres... 6 Apprentices... 8 Engagement with undergraduates... 10 Annex A Survey results... 12 3

Introduction This study, conducted in partnership with Semta, to gauge employers views on recruiting for technical positions and training technical staff, was conducted online by Semta and by telephone interview by the ESCO Executive, drawing responses respectively from Semta Electronic Systems contacts and corporate members of trade associations and other representative bodies, which are themselves members of the ESCO Executive. Candidates for telephone interviews were drawn from corporate members of trade associations and other representative bodies. The study conducted by Semta online utilised their Electronic Systems company contact listings. 86 and 88 companies respectively participated in the UKEA and Semta surveys providing a total of 184 detailed responses. This document is arranged in three broad sections: 1. A summary of the profile of the participants in the study 2. A summary of the highlights of the study grouped under the headings of recruiting technical staff, engaging with schools and other learning centres, apprentices, and engagement with undergraduates 3. The results of the study in detail, which can be found at Annex A 4

Study participant profile When compared with the economic footprint analysis conducted as part of the ESCO report, a larger proportion of the participants in our study were from medium to larger scale businesses. This may not be surprising as they are, by definition, more likely to engage with trade associations and are more likely to be known to Semta. In other words, a greater proportion of participants in our study are from businesses that are more likely to be already benefitting from shared best practices including support from organisations such as Semta. 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 This study ESCO report analysis 10 0 <10 10 to 49 50 to 249 250+ Table 1: %age distribution of UK Electronic Systems employment this study vs the ESCO economic footprint analysis The issues raised by the participants in this study are therefore likely to be even more prevalent and pronounced among the micro businesses that account for the significant majority of our community as they are more likely to lack the resources to seek or build productive relationships with the support organisations from which they would benefit. A high proportion of participants in the study are manufacturers (76%) and/or engaged in design and development (75%) and a high proportion cited high end sectors as their end markets. Defence (61%), aerospace (52%), automotive (47%) and marine (36%) were the most cited end markets. 5

Recruiting technical staff 56% of respondents stated that they had difficulty recruiting skilled or semi skilled technicians at all levels. This finding was consistent with the findings of the previous study that we ran in 2012, which found that 66% of employers were experiencing difficulty recruiting staff educated to Level 5, HNC or HND equivalent, and 61% of employers, which had difficulty recruiting staff educated to Level 6, Bachelor s degree equivalent. Image and attractiveness is a challenge for all UK Advanced Manufacturing sectors and this is probably more pronounced in smaller companies where there is little brand, market or public awareness. In the Electronic Systems community, the challenge is even greater where many companies have no easily identifiable end product compared with, for example, the aerospace, automotive or marine sectors and where the significant proportion of companies are also micro or small scale businesses. 81% of respondents agreed that there are gaps in the current skills provision in the UK. Of the respondents who said they had difficulty, the most cited reasons were: 66% - lack of trained and suitably skilled personnel in the job market 45% - unemployed candidates lack suitable skills 26% - too much competition for trained candidates One of our respondents described a situation in which there is no winner: There are gaps in all areas from technicians to good quality undergraduates and postgraduates. Most people that we have employed have come from other companies; we poach from them they poach from us. Engaging with schools and other learning centres One of the ways in which employers can raise their profile in their local job market is to engage with local learning centres and an encouraging 48% of respondents stated that they currently engage with their local schools. Schools are a clear source of potential talent where the current quality of careers information advice and guidance presents a significant opportunity for improvement and where the role of industry is essential to raise the awareness and attractiveness of careers in the Advanced Manufacturing sectors. Of those respondents who said they engage with local schools, the most cited activities were: 59% - offer work experience placements 53% - offer a variety of bespoke joint activities on their own initiative 35% - offer workplace visits to school groups 27% - work through a local partner to engage with local schools 20% - encourage staff to become STEM Ambassadors 6

This response raised a number of issues however: A high proportion of businesses (53%) work on their own initiative rather than engaging with existing programmes at either a local or national level A low proportion (27%) work through local partners STEM Ambassadors appear to have a low level of appeal or traction in our community There was a mixed response in terms of the number of businesses that organise work experience placements and open days A significant number of businesses are considering engagement with schools but with very little evidence of awareness of or evidence that they were going to participate in existing programmes. Of those respondents who said they do not engage with local schools, the following were most cited in terms of what would encourage them to engage: 65% - better advice or information on how to engage with schools 63% - support on who to approach and how to approach schools 52% - help with access to materials to support joint activities 27% cited various other potential inducements but only 7% stated that nothing would persuade them to engage with schools. One respondent expressed his frustration at his company s attempts to engage with local schools by saying: One of the things we do is mock interviews for year ten pupils in schools. One of the things that comes through is that there seems to be no coordination of work placements. It's something we'd be happy to do for local schools and colleges, but nobody asks us to. It seems very odd to have no structure to it. It would be great if there's a government agency working in this area to come and introduce themselves and explain how things work. 7

Apprentices We already know that the take up of apprenticeships in the Electronic Systems community is the lowest of all the sectors in the Semta footprint and that there should be scope for a significantly higher expansion of apprenticeships in our community. 25 20 15 10 5 0 Aerospace Automotive Electrical Electronic systems Marine Mechanical Metals Table 2: %age of businesses employing apprentices by business sector in the Semta footprint This study set out to identify the actual or perceived barriers to be overcome in order to increase the level of take up in our community. 51% of respondents stated that they employed apprentices, in contrast to Semta numbers, which show that only 6% of all Electronic Systems businesses employ apprentices. The difference between the two results can almost certainly be explained by the proportion of participants in our study that were from medium to larger scale businesses compared with the proportion of medium to larger scale businesses across the total number of Electronic Systems businesses. Of the respondents who said they employ apprentices, 76% said they would like to employ more. When questioned, those respondents said they planned to recruit, on average, an additional 10 apprentices over the next two years, a very high proportion of the workforce bearing in mind that 90% of participants our study have a total workforce of less than 250. Even among those who did not employ apprentices, 53% said they would like to do. There was a very high level of recognition of the benefits of employing apprentices. 68% agreed that apprenticeships build maturity, in particular developing an industrial work ethic and the ability to communicate effectively, and familiarise the apprentice with their company to give them a head start in their career as major benefits to their businesses. However, the overall level of awareness of the support available to employers for apprenticeships was relatively low with 74% having no or only some awareness of the funding available, 63% having no or only some awareness of how and where to access training provision and 58% having no or only some awareness of who to contact for advice and guidance. It isn t beyond credulity that there is a high correlation between the relative level of awareness of the support available for apprenticeships and the number of businesses who either already employ apprentices or don t 8

but would like to and, if so, there is a strong case for raising awareness of the level of support available to encourage more businesses to take on apprentices. Table 3: level of awareness of support available vs the %age of employers support for apprenticeships When questioned about the barriers to employing apprentices, those most cited as being of major or moderate significance were: 35% - lack of suitable candidates 27% - lack of training provision 25% - concern about retention of the apprentice when training is completed 23% - cost of training While the perceived lack of training provision and concern about the cost of training may be symptoms of the relative lack of awareness that we identified, the lack of suitable candidates and concern about retention are symptoms of the difficulty in recruiting technical staff and the wider shortage of appropriately skilled candidates that we also identified. Reflecting the fact that many brighter school leavers who, in the past would have taken up apprenticeships, now go on to university, one respondent said: We have found it difficult to find true hardware engineers with experience. Young people at university don t want to be hardware engineers, they want to be software engineers. It is also hard to find the right calibre of people who have the basic school requirements to become apprentices because, if they are that good, they will go to university. The problem is that prospective apprentices don t seem to be capable of what we require in order for us to train them. There is no doubt that the proportion of businesses not employing apprentices reported by our study would have been higher had there been a proportion of micro businesses participating in the study and it was with this in mind that we asked participants for their views on the potential benefits of sharing apprentices as we believe this would remove some of the barriers to smaller businesses that prevent them from employing apprentices today. 76% of participants agreed that there was either a significant or moderate benefit in using a local centre that would provide vocational training and organise shared industrial experience between participating companies to ease the 9

burden on business resources while 50% said there was either a significant or moderate benefit in sharing the cost and risk of employing apprentices with other companies. We believe these percentages would have been significantly higher had the study included a more representative proportion of Electronic Systems micro businesses. Local centre providing training and organising work experience No benefit Low benefit Moderate benefit Ability to share cost and risk Significant benefit Table 4: Relative perceived potential benefits of shared apprenticeships As the provision of support for shared apprenticeships will be driven by geographic factors, further research will be needed to identify the areas in the country where there is the greatest potential need for support of this type. One respondent may have been speaking for a significant number of micro and small businesses when they told us: The amount of time, paperwork and effort needed to make an indenture mean something is a problem. At the end of the day you almost need to dedicate 10% of an engineer s time to the apprentice so this is a major drawback to taking them on. Engagement with undergraduates Based on our study, 31% of businesses in the Electronic Systems community recruit A-level students and sponsor them through university and each of those businesses said they plan to employ an average of 6 under-graduates per year over the next three years. Responses were fairly evenly spread in terms of the arrangements for combining employees studies and work experience. 33% of respondents said that employees undertake a standard three or four year degree course and gain industrial experience and vocational training during university holidays, while 15% said that employees do a one year work placement before starting their degree course, 15% operate a 1-3-1 or 1-4-1 thick sandwich course while 13% operate a six months study, six months work thin sandwich course. 10

The UKESF is highly effective in connecting employers with students in schools and universities albeit on a relatively limited scale to date. Only 31% of participants in our study said they have heard of the UKESF. However, the reestablishment of Student Apprenticeships, perhaps under the management of the UKESF, would provide it with a significant opportunity to scale up its current operations while enabling this new initiative to benefit from their experience. 11

Annex A Survey results Question 1 - Does your company employ UK staff with skills in Electronics or Electronic systems? Yes 99% (171) No 1% (2) Question 2 If so, how many? <10 41% (70) 11 to 49 27% (46) 50 to 249 22% (39) 250 plus 10% (17) Question 3 - How many people in total does your company employ in the UK? <10 16% (27) 11 to 49 20% (34) 50 to 249 31% (53) 250 plus 33% (58) Question 4 - What is your UK location? South East 22% (36) Yorkshire and the Humber 17% (28) South West 14% (25) East of England 10% (18) Scotland 8% (13) North West 7% (12) West Midlands 6% (11) Wales 5% (9) East Midlands 3% (6) London 3% (6) North East 3% (5) Northern Ireland 2% (4) 12

Question 4 - What are the significant activities of your company in the UK? Manufacturing 76% (131) Design and Development 75% (130) Sales 66% (114) Marketing 60% (104) Servicing 53% (91) Other services 21% (37) Question 5 - Which markets/sectors do you supply into? Electronics 61% (105) Defence 52% (90) Aerospace 50% (86) Automotive 47% (81) Electrical 43% (74) Marine 36% (63) Mechanical 34% (59) Consumer Electronics 29% (51) Metals 22% (38) Other 47% (82) Question 6 - Have you ever employed apprentices? Yes 51% (89) No 49% (84) 13

Question 7 - How many Apprentices, or other vocationally-skilled people in the following categories do you intend to employ per year in the next 2 to 3 years? (question only asked of telephone interviewees) 2013 (average per respondent) 2014 (average per respondent) 2015 (average per respondent) Craft 3 4 1 Technician 2 2 1 Under-graduate (university) 2 1 1 Post-graduate 3 3 2 Total: 10 10 5 Question 9 - Do you have difficulty recruiting skilled or semi-skilled technicians? Yes 77% (133) No 23% (23) Question 10 - What is the main reason for the difficulty? Lack of trained personnel in the job market 66% (114) Unemployed candidates lack suitable skills 45% (77) Too much competition for trained candidates 26% (45) Lack of appropriate training available 20% (34) Training available but too expensive 12% (20) Other 23% (39) Question 11 - One way to ease the number of people wanting to go into electronics would be to better inform school students of the choices open to them. Do you currently engage with your local school(s) to encourage pupils to follow a career in Engineering and Electronics? Yes 47% (82) No 53% (91) 14

Question 12 - If you answered NO to 11, which of the following would encourage you to do so? Support on who and how to approach the schools 60% (103) Better guidance on how to go about it, so advice/information would be helpful Help with access to materials to give out to students 51% (88) 40% (69) Other 16% (28) Nothing 5% (9) Question 13 - Do you ever recruit students at A-Level stage and sponsor them through university while vocationally training them during university vacations and/or gap years? Yes 31% (53) No 66% (115) Don t know 3% (5) Question 14 - How many under-graduates do you intend to support per year in the next 2 to 3 years? (question only asked of telephone interviewees) 2013 (average per respondent) 2014 (average per respondent) 2015 (average per respondent) Under graduate 6 6 7 Post graduate 3 2 2 Question 15 If you answered YES to 14, how do you provide industrial experience and vocational training? On the job training in-company? 51% (55) A combination of on the job training and through an external provider? 41% (44) Through an external provider? 10% (11) No vocational training or industrial experience provided? 6% (7) Don t know 13% (14) 15

Question 16 - How do you organise the student s industrial experience and vocational training? They undertake a normal 3 or 4 year degree course and gain industrial experience and vocational training during their university holidays They do a one year work placement year during their 1 st year 33% (33) 15% (15) They work on a 1-3-1 or 1-4-1 sandwich course 15% (15) They work on a 6 month, thin sandwich course 13% (13) Other arrangement 35% (35) Question 17 - If you have not employed apprentices, would you like to? (question only asked of telephone interviewees) Yes 53% (20) No 47% (18) Question 18 - If you already employ apprentices, would you ideally like to employ more? Yes 76% (78) No 24% (25) Question 19 - If you answered YES or NO to Q.17 or Q.18, what are the barriers to doing this? (question only asked of telephone interviewees) Not significant Some significance Moderate significance Major significance Lack of suitable candidates 37% (19) 29% (15) 8% (4) 27% (14) Lack of local training provision 58% (30) 15% (8) 12% (6) 15% (8) Unsure if the apprentice will stay with us at the end of their training 46% (24) 29% (15) 13% (7) 12% (6) Lack of in-house training resource 67% (35) 17% (9) 8% (4) 8% (4) Familiarity with the process 60% (31) 27% (14) 6% (3) 8% (4) Cost of training and/or educating the apprentice 52% (27) 25% (13) 17% (9) 6% (3) Cost of employing an apprentice 58% (30) 23% (12) 13% (7) 6% (3) Ability to offer a job / career at the end of the training process 63% (33) 27% (14) 6% (3) 4% (2) 16

Regulation and legislation 85% (44) 10% (5) 4% (2) 2% (1) Health & Safety 92% (48) 8% (4) 0% (0) 0% (0) Other reason(s) 2% (1) 4% (2) 6% (3) 62% (32) Question 20 - If you answered NO to question Q.18 or Q.19, what would change your mind about employing apprentices or providing simultaneous vocational training and industrial experience for students? No impact Low impact Moderate impact High impact Don t know The ability to share the cost and risk of employing and training an apprentice or student with another company or companies (shared apprenticeships) A local centre that could provide vocational training and organise shared industrial experience with other local companies to ease the burden on your team and resources 27% (31) 20% (23) 30% (35) 20% (23) 3% (3) 18% (21) 10% (11) 43% (50) 26% (30) 3% (3) Question 21 - What do you see as the major benefits of providing industrial experience and vocational training (including apprenticeships)? (question only asked of telephone interviewees) No benefit Low benefit Moderate benefit High benefit It builds maturity in the student/apprentice, in particular it builds an industrial work ethic and the ability to communicate at all levels. It familiarises the person with my company and gives them a headstart when they take on their career. It acts as an extended job interview allowing me to be sure of the person before final recruitment as a fulltime employee. 6% (5) 2% (2) 24% (20) 68% (58) 5% (4) 6% (5) 21% (18) 68% (58) 9% (8) 8% (7) 32% (27) 51% (43) 17

Question 22 What is your level of awareness and understanding with regard to the following aspects of apprenticeships? No awareness Some awareness Good awareness Strong awareness I am aware of who to contact for advice and guidance in this area? I am aware of how and where to access training provision for apprenticeship and vocational training? I am aware of the funding available to support apprenticeships and vocational training? 26% (45) 32% (54) 27% (46) 15% (25) 26% (45) 37% (62) 25% (43) 12% (20) 34% (58) 40% (68) 18% (30) 8% (14) Question 23 Are you aware of the UK Electronic Skills Foundation? Yes 31% (53) No 69% (118) Question 25 - From your company s perspective, are there gaps in the current skills provision in the UK? (question only asked of telephone interviewees) Yes 81% (69) No 19% (16) Question 26 - In round terms, what would you consider to be the annual investment of employing and training an apprentice per annum (exc. salary costs) or providing vocational training for a university student? (question only asked of telephone interviewees) Don t know Circa 1,000 pa Circa 5,000 pa Circa 10,000 pa Circa 15,000 pa Craft apprentice 67% (57) 6% (5) 16% (14) 8% (7) 2% (2) Technician apprentice 51% (43) 5% (4) 12% (10) 21% (18) 12% (10) Undergraduate 60% (51) 4% (3) 14% (12) 13% (11) 9% (8) MSc student 68% (58) 2% (2) 13% (11) 6% (5) 11% (9) PhD student 71% (60) 1% (1) 8% (7) 6% (5) 71% (60) 18