Plymouth’s manufacturers have created an innovative website to highlight the city’s engineering firms and the jobs available for young people in a bid to tackle the ongoing skills shortage.
Plymouth Manufacturers’ Group (PMG), which represents more than 60 businesses, has used cash from Plymouth’s City Deal to create the Plymouthmakes.co.uk website.
It already contains details of 20 of the city’s top manufacturing firms, and the products they make, with more being added all the time.
And it also contains details about which firms are seeking apprentices and have recruitment opportunities, in addition to featuring learning resources.
The idea is to create a site for teenagers and their teachers to gain information about careers in one of the country’s leading manufacturing cities.
And it will also help firms with their recruitment, with 81% of manufacturing businesses, nationally, reporting problems with getting enough, or the right, staff in 2019.
The worker shortage has been experienced in Plymouth too where PMG’s members employ 13,000 people but are constantly in need of fresh blood.
Plymouth has the highest concentration of manufacturing and engineering employment relative to the size of population of any large city in the whole of the south of England. PMG members have a combined annual turnover of £2.7billion.
Each year they create jobs, with Plymouth-based defence giant Babcock International Plc taking on 130 apprentices annually, while another large Plymouth firm, Princess Yachts, recruits 60.
Steve Gerry, secretary to the PMG, said the organisation wanted to “leave a legacy” from the pioneering work the City Deal cash, received more than five years ago, had funded to create links between South West manufacturers and education.
He said talks revealed that schools and students needed resources and the firms needed fresh intakes of employees.
“More and more manufacturers are struggling to recruit,” Mr Gerry said. “This is often at a more senior level, but they think that by taking on more apprentices it sorts out a problem with skills shortages further down the line.”
Gemma Selley, of Link and Bloom which is working with the PMG, said: “We wanted a website to showcase the manufacturing industry to young people, families, teachers and careers advisers in and around the city to create awareness of the sector, raise aspirations and encourage new talent into engineering and manufacturing careers.
“A lot of people don’t actually know what we make here in Plymouth, so we wanted to create a space where it was easy to find out.
“We hope people will get to know their local manufacturer. We haven’t got all of them on the site yet, be we have more than 20 and will keep adding.
“And there is a real diversity, for instance defence, marine and health, and we want to show that, and the level of skills in the city, so young people will want to make the things that are made here and shipped all over the world. There is a careers section on the website so young people can find reasons to work in manufacturing.”
The website will also contain details of Plymouth’s annual Apprenticeship Jobs Fair, last held in February 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic arrived in the UK.
The fair is focused on construction and manufacturing, the two sectors most hampered by a shortage of new recruits. It is likely to be held virtually in 2021.
“Plymouth is very much part of the UK’s manufacturing sector and vital for the economy,” Ms Selley said. “And we want to shout about it.”
