I was watching the programme last week and felt the hackles raise a little as one of the presenters pointed out that the farming industry needs to recruit 60,000 people over the next decade.
As, we hope, most who read New Electronics and its sister publications are aware, manufacturing and engineering has been facing a more serious recruitment challenge for some years and there remains the need to recruit more than 250,000 people in the next five years or so – at least in the view of EngineeringUK. What’s annoying is this issue continues to get little or no coverage in the mainstream media – and certainly not on prime time TV.
I have no problem with sustaining and developing the UK’s farming sector, but realisation has dawned over the last few years that we also need to sustain and develop the UK’s manufacturing and engineering industries as a counterbalance to our dependence on the financial and services sectors.
Cynics might say that one reason why manufacturing and engineering don’t get the coverage is because the mainstream media just doesn’t ‘get it’. I figuratively tear out what's left of my hair when web based businesses are described by the mainstream media as 'technology companies'.
But it’s not just the mainstream media; politicians are equally culpable. Recently, I was at a seminar where an industry association executive said: “When you talk about electrical or electronics issues to government, it’s like talking in a different language. Electrical and electronics are just not on their radar.”
No great surprise to many of us, but perhaps a slight exaggeration. Nevertheless, the brief for electronics – a technology which supports around 1million UK jobs and whose use contributes £100billion to the UK’s economy – is held by a junior minister.
Cuddly lambs will trump manufacturing at every opportunity.
