Frimley, 2013-Oct-18
With a projected 800,000 engineering skills shortfall by 2020, attracting, retaining and developing people is a priority for all employers regardless of size in manufacturing and engineering industries. TRS is the first UK wide sector platform of its kind with the potential to capture and present talent from our schools, colleges, universities and experienced professionals on one national system. It provides a highly practical response to the engineering skills shortage.
Mike Jones, human resources director for Siemens Energy UK said:
“As one of the founding organisations and active user of the TRS for talent sourcing, Siemens has a very keen interest in building on successes to date. Over the last year we have extended our reach to new organisations, especially universities and added hundreds of many new candidates to the online talent database.
Events, such as the one yesterday at the House of Commons are invaluable opportunities for us to reflect on how we will continue to grow the initiative and continue to make a tangible difference to individuals, organisations and society.”
TRS was launched in 2011 by the UK Business Secretary, Dr Vince Cable MP with the support of six leading engineering companies - Siemens, Shell, Rolls Royce, EADS/Airbus, EDF Energy, and BAE Systems. TRS is now wholly employer-led and provides a nationwide platform catering for people at all stages of their careers and walks of life; Experienced, Apprentices, Graduates, Postgraduates and Undergraduates. Supported also by a growing array of professional organisations, the web-based TRS platform represents a highly practical response to meeting the UK’s future Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) skills needs. Several hundred companies are registered on the system, including SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) TRS is supported by key trade associations, professional bodies and unions, who have formed a collective to drive TRS through their membership. The ECITB is a partner organisation.TRS also has considerable support from educational institutions - over 30 universities and colleges are working with TRS.
The House of Commons reception will be attended by leading industrialists, parliamentarians, academics and representatives from trade associations and professional institutions, many of whom are already very much engaged with TRS and others keen to learn more about the importance of TRS to the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) UK skills base. Lord Willis will open the event and there will be brief talks by industrialists including SMEs. Allan Cook, Chair of the Skills and Jobs Retention Group, which led the development of the TRS, and Chairman of Atkins, Selex ES and Finmeccanica UK and Terry Scouler, Chief Executive, EEF will also speak at the event.
Commenting on the journey so far, Richard Smith, Engagement Director for TRS said:
“We are delighted by the response we continue to receive from a wide range of organisations and candidates to this important national initiative. TRS is not a short term quick fix solution, employers recognise this and are putting their weight and investment into a national platform which will progressively attract, retain and develop people for employment in the sector. For example TRS is opening up broader opportunities for SMEs to find skilled people, graduates and apprentices. SMEs often find it hard to recruit graduates in particular. Because of the links TRS has with universities more graduates are expected to register on the system looking for employment. With projected skills shortages looming we simply cannot afford to miss out on retaining and supporting people, including those who might otherwise be lost to the sector and the engineering/manufacturing economy.“
TRS was launched in 2011 by the UK Business Secretary, Dr Vince Cable MP with the support of six leading engineering companies - Siemens, Shell, Rolls Royce, EADS/Airbus, EDF Energy, and BAE Systems. TRS is now wholly employer-led and provides a nationwide platform catering for people at all stages of their careers and walks of life; Experienced, Apprentices, Graduates, Postgraduates and Undergraduates. Supported also by a growing array of professional organisations, the web-based TRS platform represents a highly practical response to meeting the UK’s future Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) skills needs. Several hundred companies are registered on the system, including SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) TRS is supported by key trade associations, professional bodies
and unions, who have formed a collective to drive TRS through their membership. The ECITB is a partner organisation.TRS also has considerable support from educational institutions - over 30 universities and colleges are working with TRS.
The House of Commons reception was attended by leading industrialists, parliamentarians, academics and representatives from trade associations and professional institutions, many of whom are already very much engaged with TRS and others keen to learn more about the importance of TRS to the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) UK skills base. Lord Willis will open the event and there will be brief talks by industrialists including SMEs. Allan Cook, Chair of the Skills and Jobs Retention Group, which led the development of the TRS, and
Chairman of Atkins, Selex ES and Finmeccanica UK and Terry Scouler, Chief Executive, EEF will also speak at the event.
Commenting on the journey so far, Richard Smith, engagement director for TRS said:
“We are delighted by the response we continue to receive from a wide range of organisations and candidates to this important national initiative. TRS is not a short term quick fix solution, employers recognise this and are putting their weight and investment into a national platform which will progressively attract, retain and develop people for employment in the sector.
For example, TRS is opening up broader opportunities for SMEs to find skilled people, graduates and apprentices. SMEs often find it hard to recruit graduates in particular. Because of the links TRS has with universities more graduates are expected to register on the system looking for employment. With projected skills shortages looming we simply cannot afford to miss out on retaining and supporting people, including those who might otherwise be lost to the sector and the engineering/manufacturing economy.“
Speaker perspectives
Allan Cook, Chair of the Skills and Jobs Retention Group, which led the development of the TRS, and Chairman of Atkins, Selex ES and Finmeccanica UK, said:
"TRS was designed and developed by industry, associations, Unite and BIS to help to retain and attract engineering talent within our engineering sector. It is self funded and completely free to small and medium enterprises. This is just one of many measures that the Government - with the full support from industry - is helping to protect and develop our most precious resource - PEOPLE! I have been immensely proud to be part of this programme and hope that it can continue to address the needs of our industry as we pull ourselves out of the recession."
Terry Scouler, chief executive, EEF said:
“We are extremely supportive of the excellent work TRS is doing to retain key skills within the manufacturing and engineering sector and we look forward to working with our members to help them adopt the TRS platform as a core component of their talent acquisition, development and retention programmes.”
Contact for journalists:
Siemens plc
Rachel Odams, tel: 07808 824209
E-mail: rachel.odams@siemens.com
For further information and press pictures, please see: www.siemens.co.uk/press
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Siemens plc
Siemens was established in the United Kingdom 170 years ago and now employs around 13,520 people in the UK. Last year’s revenues were £3.2 billion*. As a leading global engineering and technology services company, Siemens provides innovative solutions to help tackle the world’s major challenges, across the key sectors of energy, industry, infrastructure & cities and healthcare. Siemens has offices and factories throughout the UK, with its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.siemens.co.uk
* Data includes intercompany revenue. Data may not be comparable with revenue reported in annual or interim reports.
About the Talent Retention Solution
The Talent Retention Solution (TRS) is a not-for-profit sector-wide solutions platform representing an industrial strategy for growth by facilitating the ‘attraction, retention and development’ of people and skills across UK Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering industries TRS is driven by six major UK based engineering employers and is industry funded - Siemens, Shell, Rolls-Royce, Airbus, EDF Energy and BAE Systems Several hundred companies are registered on the system, including SMEs (small to medium-sized organisations) TRS is supported by key trade associations, professional bodies and unions, who have formed a collective to drive TRS through their membership Educational institutions - over 30 universities and college now working with TRS. Companies seeking to recruit engineering talent or people interested in working in engineering and who want to find out more are encouraged to visit the TRS website
