Thu, 05 December, 2024
The UK government has announced, ‘Invest 2035: The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy,’ a proposed 10-year plan to improve the economy and allow investment into high-growth sectors and drive long-term economic growth.
A green paper has been produced and, with the final Industrial Strategy to be published in spring 2025, the government have sought feedback from a number of key organisations, including TWI.
The government intends to focus on eight growth sectors, of which four closely align to our Industrial Membership:
- advanced manufacturing
- clean energy industries
- defence
- digital and technologies
The government also sought feedback on solving key challenges, which covers all areas of our Technology, Training and Professional Membership business, such as:
- skills
- research and development
- technology adoption
Our Position in Industry
We have been supporting companies with their engineering challenges since 1935, when the scope of The Institute of Welding expanded its focus and opened up to support companies as well individuals. This support expanded further in 1937 with the award of a government grant to fund welding research, before the 1946 creation of a separate research organisation, the British Welding Research Association (BWRA), which would form the basis of what would later become TWI Ltd.
Our history, aligned with decades of experience, has seen us work alongside both government and all industry sectors, giving us a unique position and perspective to provide feedback to this green paper.
TWI Feedback
The feedback we provided covered areas that we believe we are well placed to advise on, including sector methodology, sectors, people and skills, innovation, energy, trade and international partnerships, institutions, and more.
A summary of our feedback is as follows:
The government strategy should look into the global addressable market for subsectors that show sustained or growing global demand through the next decade, especially those with a good competitive position. There is a need to manage both existing and new capabilities and cross-sector synergies. Understanding supply and value chains as well as providing appropriate funding and skills development are important in this. While welding and joining is a foundational sector which cuts across all industries, we believe that areas of growth where the UK can lead include Small Modular Reactors (SMR), hydrogen, Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), offshore wind, and the space sector.
This all requires the right investment to upskill and reskill an engineering workforce required to deliver the Industrial Strategy long term. Making entry into STEM professions through initiatives such as apprenticeships is welcomed along with increased financial support for employers providing STEM based work experience placements. We also believe it is important to maintain ongoing government funding support programmes such as ‘Skills for Life,’ to continue to reskilling individuals to enter the engineering sector. We believe that new models for cluster innovation centres could be used to provide greater economic and prosperity growth, whilst improving opportunities for people in places where it has been lacking. These centres would improve the financial/commercial sustainability of the UK’s innovation network, as well as its performance in generating economic growth and higher-value jobs from its activities.
To help deliver the Industrial Strategy, we believe it is important to connect and interact with the UK Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) capability. RTOs play a critical role in the UK’s research and development ecosystem by applying research developed by the UK’s universities and solving challenging niche industrial problems, which provide companies a competitive edge.
We feel that local growth is important for this plan, attracting global demand in specific sectors that could be met through local clusters, while seeking to engage with high-value products and services though innovation. Bringing together local hubs of innovation, industry and academia connected to high-demand global markets.
We also listed a number of barriers to investment, including high competition for available government grant funding programmes, which has resulted in low success rates. In addition, we noted how the bureaucracy around central government funding mechanisms has blocked accessibility, while a lack of understanding by funding agencies around existing capabilities and infrastructure has led to duplication of facilities/expertise to access the same markets. There is also a significant engineering skills shortage in the UK, which is discouraging employers from basing themselves in the UK.
We also concluded that research technology organisations (RTOs) have a key part to play The UK has a well-established network of RTOs dating back to their formation after the Second World War as ‘Research Associations’. RTOs play a critical role in the UK’s research and development ecosystem by applying research developed by the UK’s universities and solving challenging niche industrial problems which provide companies a competitive edge. TWI is a member-based UK national asset for materials, joining and integrity management expertise, with 504 Industrial Members, of which 281 are UK based including seven FTSE 100, and 90 UK SME. We propose sector-based sub-committees to input and guide strategy and would volunteer to participate in both the advanced manufacturing and clean energy industries. We would also advocate for cross-cutting themes to be addressed, in particular skills and people. The UK is acutely aware of the challenges associated with development and provision of talent, which is an essential component to delivering the Industrial Strategy. As a skills-based training provider of welding and inspection qualifications, we feel engagement education providers of level 3 and above to be paramount.