Skills matching service aims to retain UK’s manufacturing talent

Defence sector engineers will be first to use redeployment service

A new online service is set to link skilled manufacturing workers facing redundancy from the defence sector with recruiting employers in growth areas of manufacturing.

The Talent Retention Solution (TRS) matching service, launched by the government this week, will help employers find the highly skilled people they need as demand for skilled engineers far exceeds supply.

It will also provide jobseeker support for defence engineers who may be struggling to find work in today’s difficult economic climate.

TRS is intended to complement commercial recruitment by creating a talent pool of skilled defence employees who need redeployment support.

Workers from the defence sector will benefit first, but the government plans to widen access to the service to support the redeployment of skilled employees from across the advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors.

The government expects the service to be “an important tool in situations where large scale redundancies are occurring”.

Manufacturing and engineering companies who have already signed up to the system, and who are recruiting over the next year, include Rolls Royce (creating 1,000 jobs), Siemens (creating 500 jobs), Nissan (creating 200 jobs) and Airbus (creating 600 jobs).

Supply chain companies will also be able to use the service for redeployment and recruitment. Workers will be able to sign up to the service from January 2012 when it goes live.

Minister for Business and Enterprise Mark Prisk said: "This easily accessible web based system will play a vital role in ensuring that these skills are not lost by redeploying highly skilled workers into growing sectors of advanced manufacturing such as automotive, energy, infrastructure and aerospace.”

Tim Thomas, head of employment affairs at manufacturing organisation the EEF, said: “Our future as a high value economy depends on maintaining and enhancing high value skills at all levels.

"As some sectors of industry suffer reduced demand or go through periods of cyclical restructuring we have to ensure that skilled employees are not lost to the sector, as all the evidence suggests that once they are gone they go forever.

"This scheme will be a smart way of matching employers’ needs with skilled employees to ensure we keep advanced skills within manufacturing.”

TRS was developed by the Skills and Jobs Retention Group (SJRG) and Semta (Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies).

Allan Cook, chairman of Semta and the SJRG, said: “It is imperative for future success and economic growth that we do all that we can to retain, recruit and motivate our employees within the advanced engineering and manufacturing sectors.”

Source People Management