Michael Davis, chief executive of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), has urged UK manufacturing businesses to fire up their ambition and invest in advanced, high-value strategies and skills to drive economic growth and job creation.

We are not in the top 10 countries and not on track to be world class by 2020. We want more businesses to be ambitious. We come from a low base line. We still have a huge challenge to overcome to grow the skills base

Michael Davis, Chief Executive, UKCES

The UK is “relatively skill poor”, Davis told senior manufacturing leaders at a BAE Systems event this month. “We are not in the top 10 countries and not on track to be world class by 2020,” he said.

For the UK to assert a stronger advantage in the world economy, more investment is needed from employers and individuals, the “right economically valuable skills” must be developed, and more jobs and opportunities must exist for the unemployed.

Furthermore, Davis emphasised: “We want more businesses to be ambitious.”

Just 44% of UK manufacturing businesses operate “advanced, high-value” strategies, which emphasise engineering instead of “simply producing products to a pre-determined specification”, he said, a percentage that is below the average for all industries. However, the importance of manufacturing in the UK is reflected in its £47k gross value added (GVA) average per worker, which compares favourably with £41.6k for the UK as a whole.

The state of manufacturing skills in the UK presents a challenging picture. Davis said 18% of all manufacturing jobs vacancies were due to a lack of skills, qualifications or experience compared to 16% nationally. A related statistic shows that 20% of manufacturing firms report gaps in the skills of their workforce compared to the national average of 19%, he added.

Other statistics Davis cited included:

• 5% of manufacturers offer apprenticeships
• 45% of manufacturing businesses said vocational qualifications did not meet their needs
• only 5% of manufacturers request a specific vocational qualification when recruiting.

“We come from a low base line,” Davis said. “We still have a huge challenge to overcome to grow the skills base.”