Chancellor Urged to Keep Engineering Budget

The 200,000 self-employed working in the manufacturing sector are crucial to the post pandemic recovery and must not be cast adrift in the forthcoming budget, says the head of the sector connector Enginuity.

Ann Watson, CEO of Enginuity, the pivotal people helping to skill individuals, create new engineers and support organisations within engineering and manufacturing, believes that it would be a grave mistake to end support funding for those on the ‘front line’.

She said: “There are 200,000 self-employed people working in the manufacturing sector who, as it stands, will be cut off from government financial support to get through the pandemic in just two months’ time.

“Engineering, has played a crucial role during the pandemic, has helped create, manufacture and deploy a vaccine which is starting to protect the country – and undoubtedly will be on the front line of the economic recovery.

“As we come out of the pandemic, we simply cannot afford to lose their talents – especially in light of the annual shortfall of up to 59,000 workers with engineering skills.”

“If the government is set on withdrawing financial support, it must put in place support measures to help them to find new roles within the sector.

“If we could match the talents of those 200,000 workers to the skills needs of employers across engineering and manufacturing, we would solve the engineering skills crisis and, more importantly, avoid creating a needless financial crisis for 200,000 families.”

On average engineering and manufacturing contributes £191 billion to the UK economy and is revered the World over.