Economy: Manufacturing

Debate between Viscount Younger of Leckie and Baroness Wilcox

Monday 10th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent assessment they have made of the levels of manufacturing activity in the United Kingdom.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Viscount Younger of Leckie) (Con)]

My Lords, manufacturing output increased by 0.8% in the final quarter of 2013 and by 2.5% over the course of the year. A strong manufacturing sector remains crucial to the UK economy, both now and in the future. Manufacturing is a major driver of productivity growth. It accounts for £12.2 billion of UK business R&D and over half of the UK’s exports, and provides employment for 2.6 million people.

[Baroness Wilcox (Con)]

I thank the Minister and am delighted to know that my Government are doing so well. However, if we are to fill industry’s growing need for a young workforce who are skilled in new techniques and disciplines—such as those required in the pharma industry—it is time that careers advisers and teachers in our schools understood and offered equal status as regards the choices between universities and apprenticeships. EAL’s survey of 600 apprentices found that fewer than one in 10 of them found out about their options from schools. It cited the case of a girl with A grades who wanted to be an apprentice but was told that her adviser could not help. She has gone ahead and done it on her own: she has trained as an apprentice with BAE and is now fully qualified and fully salaried. She has a car of her own and is putting down a deposit on a house—good girl.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

We have placed a legal requirement on schools to secure independent careers guidance, including information on apprenticeships, and we are successfully increasing the numbers of apprentices in the engineering and manufacturing technology sector subject area. In 2012-13, there were 138,700 such apprentices, an increase of 10.3% on 2011-12, and we have opened 17 university technical colleges, with a further 33 in development.