The chemical industry is the UK’s biggest manufacturing exporter, so the sector’s health is key to the UK economy.
According to the Chemical Industries Association ‘To operate safely and compete globally we need to employ a wide range of skilled people from chemical engineers to technicians and maintenance staff. In fact, there is not an unskilled job in the chemical industry. Even in times of an economic downturn, supply of skills is a problem that is hampering the competitiveness of the industry.’
The skills gap is not new and much good work has been done over the past years to attract more people into the industry, to improve apprenticeships, to focus on operator training and to develop recently graduated engineers. However much still needs to be done and the chemical sector is not alone in this, with 80% of UK firms having difficulty filling positions with competent people.
ABB Consulting is passionate about the ongoing success and sustainability of the UK process industries and one of the areas we focus on is the professional development of young engineers. Through ABB’s training courses and technical forums we help to develop over 3,500 engineers every year.
Successful manufacturing operations require effective management ‘Processes’, ‘Plant’ and equipment that is fit for purpose and competent ‘People’. Each of the 3’P’s must be effective in their own right, but they must also be aligned and effective with each other. The solution to any engineering or operational issue will only be effective when the people involved are also effective. This approach is built into ABB’s consulting work, where transferring knowledge and skills to the manufacturing organisation can be a very important part of the solution. Technical training is one important element of this knowledge transfer but is also provided independently as a stand alone service.
ABB’s approach to training is to base the learning on real world examples and experience. This allows course attendees to gain some experience in applying the new knowledge which they have been given on the course to realistic problems or case studies. All of ABB’s course tutors are practicing consultants or engineers in the subject matter of the course, so can share their experiences of using the new skills to solve real problems. This use of case study problems along with the expertise and experience of course tutors always comes out top of the many positive responses to our training courses.
The programme of technical training courses that ABB runs annually is open to all and covers a broad range of topics and levels of experience; from process safety leadership and advanced hazard analysis to awareness level training for less experienced engineers in a number of fundamental areas such as the management of pressure systems.
Open training courses offer a flexible way to develop individuals within an organisation, but when it comes to making a big impact on the effectiveness of an organisation then in-house training courses are much more effective. The content of in-house courses can be tailored to the specific organisation; adopting internal procedures, terminology and most importantly examples. The use of internal processes and applying them to routine problems helps to embed the learning and speeds up the beneficial application of the new knowledge by course delegates. Part of the course can be used to plan improvements or to agree how to overcome potential barriers to successful application of the new skills leant.
All of ABB Consulting’s tutors get a lot of satisfaction from delivering training and development. They enjoy sharing their real life experiences that are not easily passed on in other ways and in seeing the ‘light bulb moments’ when delegates suddenly see a way forward with some of their long term technical issues. The benefits to individual engineers, particularly to recently qualified ones, is pleasing and easy to see. However, the greater benefits that come from helping to close the skills gap, even in a small way, are much less immediate – but much more important
Dai Richards
Marketing Manager for ABB Consulting
To find out more about ABB’s professional development training visit
abb.com/uk/consulting/training
