The CEA and the National Manufacturing Skills Task Force (NMSTF)

The CEA is relaunching its Skills initiative this year to address the skills gap and the recruitment issues that the sector is facing. As part of this, the Association joined the National Manufacturing Skills Task Force (NMSTF) at the beginning of the year. This task force is co-ordinated by Make UK and involves liaison with BEIS and DEFRA to influence Government policy on Skills and Education policy to help the manufacturing industry.

Since February, the CEA has begun to participate in NMSTF calls and activities. This includes regular quarterly updates, and also included a virtual event for National Apprenticeship Week, which involved two CEA members joining as panellists to help promote the sector.

Discussions on NMSTF calls have revealed that the issues faced by the construction equipment sector are common with many other manufacturing industries in the UK. A poor image has limited the number of people pursuing careers within the sector in recent years and has also led to an aging employment population. This has led to the NMSTF developing a Manufacturing Action Plan to improve the image of the industry and help to attract more young ones to pursue careers.

BEIS and DEFRA have been given the responsibility by the Government of solving workforce challenges, so the NMSTF had been working closely with them, (as well as the DfE and DWP), on the Manufacturing Plan, to make sure that the needs of the sector are taken on board. This includes the four key areas below that are the focus of the Plan:

1. Attract more people into manufacturing by improving the image of the sector
2. Increase the number of manufacturing apprenticeships by improving the quality of and access to apprenticeships
3. Increase industry investment in training and skills to improve productivity and growth
4. Increase the availability of modular, employer-led, flexible training for upskilling (including technology & efficiency)

The CEA Skills initiative will include liaison with members on NMSTF activities and will ask for feedback on the challenges they are facing to feed into Task Force activities. An upcoming event is Make UK National Manufacturing Day on the 7^th July, which provides an opportunity for members to be involved and to promote the construction equipment sector.