How can manufacturing promote itself as more than an ‘industrial relic’? Alistair Houghton reports

WHEN one questioner at last week’s Northwest Manufacturing Conference suggested that Lime Pictures should give somebody on Hollyoaks a job in Stanlow oil refinery, she was only half joking.

Everyone involved with the Liverpool event seemed to agree that manufacturing has an image problem. The sector remains vital to the economies of Merseyside and Cheshire, but those involved say it can be hard to attract young people to work in manufacturing because they see it as an “industrial relic”.

Speaking from the audience at the BT Convention Centre, Dr Jenny Clucas, chief executive of Chemicals Northwest, also suggested that a soap opera set in manufacturing could help make the industry seem more attractive to young people.

It got a laugh, but there was a serious point behind the gag. That’s why, as part of the new Northwest Manufacturing Strategy and Action Plan, so much weight is being given to the need to change the way the sector is perceived.

The strategy has a bold vision for North West manufacturing.

It states: “The modern manufacturing sector of the North West will be innovative, enterprising, highly-skilled, and well led. It will continue to be the most productive element of the regional economy, and a major creator of wealth for the region and its people.

“The continuing success of the sector and its recognition in international markets will ensure that a wide range of companies choose the North West as their preferred location, making the North West the UK’s premier manufacturing sector.”

The NWDA is also keen to make sure that people realise that manufacturing is about more than simply making widgets.

It has created a new definition of manufacturing, which it says covers “The full cycle of activities, from research, design, development, production, logistics, after-sales service, maintenance and repair, to end-of-life management.”

The agency is also putting its money where its mouth is. At Thursday’s conference, it announced it was giving another £20m to the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) to support small and medium-sized manufacturers.

It has also created a new website at www.makeit.org.uk to encourage young people to consider careers in manufacturing.

The agency is also funding the expansion of the existing Make It campaign.

MAKE It was launched by the Manufacturing Institute in 2006 to promote manufacturing to schoolchildren.

It has been backed by companies including Wirral’s Typhoo and Jaguar Land Rover, which employs 2,000 people at Halewood.

Last year, JLR hosted the Merseyside heat of the Make It in Manufacturing Enterprise Challenge, which saw teams from 11 schools set up their own mini-car manufacturing companies to design and promote new cars.

Nearly 12,000 young people have already been involved in Make It activities in the North-West, and the Institute is planning many more activities in the year ahead.

Campaign manager Nicola Eagleton-Crowther said: “If you ask a teenager what they want from their ideal job, their wish-list often includes decent pay, being creative, meeting people and travelling, early responsibility and promotional opportunities.

“Typically, these are features of a manufacturing career, yet there’s this huge disconnect between the reality of working in manufacturing and the image that people have of the sector.

“The recession has demonstrated how crucial manufacturing and engineering are to our economy and it’s essential that we attract the brightest young people to all types of jobs – from production and engineering to HR, advertising and purchasing.”

One of the keynote speakers at last week’s conference was Mark Gregory, head of manufacturing at defence giant BAE Systems.

He brought up an image on the venue’s giant screen showing what young people had told him they wanted from their jobs.

It included words such as challenging, sexy, and fun, as well as phrases including “loads of money” and “international exposure”.

So, what, Mr Gregory asked the audience, did young people think of a manufacturer like BAE – an undeniably innovative, hi-tech company with over 100,000 employees and customers in more than 100 countries?

The screen changed, and the words “none of these” appeared in big black letters.

Mr Gregory admitted he was “overwhelmed” that young people did not see a company like his as a great place to work.

The problem, he said, was exacerbated by the fact that many teachers shared those views, meaning a negative image of manufacturing was being passed down the generations. “The young generation thinks manufacturing is a relic of an industrial age,” he said.

“More importantly, some of the people who guide those young people also feel that.”

ColorMatrix, in Knowsley, which produces colourants and additives for the plastics industry, also works with the Manufacturing Institute to promote the sector.

Its operations director, Dave Nuttall, said: “We should be focused on attracting an enthusiastic new generation of people to fuel a future of smart manufacturing, rather than people who can simply fill technical, low-grade jobs.

“Manufacturing can be regarded as being about boiler suits, grease, oil and sticking two widgets together. That’s just not true.

“At ColorMatrix, we have people in R&D, chemists, marketing, IT and 15 nationalities represented in our sales and customer service and technical teams.

“Manufacturing can be so multi-faceted and rewarding as a career.”

Dr Clucas herself actively campaigns to help change the perception of the chemicals industry. She says it is still often seen as dirty and Dickensian, when it is, in fact, clean, hi-tech and innovative.

But the industry’s workforce is ageing, and Chemicals Northwest is itself working hard to promote the sector in local schools to encourage more young people to consider jobs in the chemicals sector.

Engineer Arthur Turner says manufacturing’s image problem stems from state policy towards the sector.

Mr Turner, managing director of Rainford Precision Machines, started his career in manufacturing as an apprentice at Lucas Aerospace, Broadgreen, and founded his own business in 1991. The firm, which has its own tool grinding department, is in the micro-precision manufacturing sector, working in industries ranging from aerospace to watch-making.

He said: “For probably 30 years, no government of any political persuasion has helped promote manufacturing. They have wanted financial services instead.

“They’ve not given the sector any help since Margaret Thatcher gave small business grants to engineers in the early 1980s.

“They bent over backwards for the banks. They’ve had to do something for the car industry because they’re such big employers, but I think that was reluctant.”

Mr Turner agrees it is “dramatically unfair” that manufacturing still has an outdated reputation as a dirty industry, and says the Government should actively support the UK’s hi-tech manufacturing sector.

“There are some fabulous challenges in manufacturing,” he said. “My sector is engineering, but there are other successful sectors such as aerospace, medical science and space science.

“There are so many companies out there bringing money to the UK.”

alistair.houghton