CeeD – where ‘know how’ meets ‘can do’

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Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2021

 

Blog by Joe Pacitti, CeeD Managing Director

Around this time last year, I was writing an article for ScotAppWeek 2020 which I started drafting on the bus and continued on the train, as I journeyed from my home in Edinburgh to Glasgow for a business meeting.

So, some things have changed in the last 12 months - and I can’t recall the last time I was even on a bus or a train – traffic and travel time to think and write is zero now, as I move from one room to another instead but always heading back to the Laptop for a meeting via Teams, Zoom or another digital platform.

In fact, the biggest business gathering I last took part in was right at the launch of ScotAppWeek in 2020, as I addressed over 550 guests at the CeeD Industry Awards – the kind of gathering that could only be run digitally ever since.

That evening we celebrated the many good things from our engineering and manufacturing community. However, for all that attended I think the stand-out moments related to the young people who were recognised for awards and contributions and the significant number of the guests who were part of that emerging talent pool.

 

At one at the end of the dinner I was talking to two of our highly respected business leaders (a quick calculation totted up over 100 years of industry experience between the three of us!) and we were approached by a very articulate young female engineer. The 20 mins of conversation that followed left us all highly impressed with the journey and learning that she had undergone to get to that point in her career. I turned – and may I say – to two of Scotland’s highly resonant leaders and said something like “there goes your next best hire, or someone like her”. Perhaps fortunately, that job swap did not happen as the two companies I was talking to were from the Food & Drink and High-end Automation and Control sectors – the young woman was from a healthcare manufacturing organisation – and little did we know then that the balance of need was to be more in favour of healthcare for the next while.

What has not changed was how impressive the talent pool is and can be with the full apprenticeship ladder from foundation through to graduate levels. Particularly with the increased need for more digital skills coming into every sector, perhaps now even more relevant in engineering and manufacturing with the real benefit to productivity and impacts on smooth supply chains, which we have so sorely relied on to deliver fast science and engineering through to the manufacturing process to combat a pandemic. Not just the healthcare products and services, but strong supplies for every other interconnected sector that has meant globally we have continued to provide necessary products and services.

One of the expressions I was taken by, and reminded of a few times, perhaps relates to that meeting of experience and early-stage career – and that phrase was reverse mentoring. Increasingly the companies I work with and the CeeD membership is made up of many such businesses – innovative, dynamic thirst for learning and underpinned by resonant leaders – continue to share stories of how the next generation is adding value with their knowledge base. Often the fact that they are digital natives is of great benefit as we see the upskilling across the workforce and real examples of true reverse mentoring, and even better when it is two way.

So, it strikes me that the usual comments about embracing the talent of the future for our sector and others is not just about that medium and long term strategy – the need for some of those different skills and, as mentioned, digital are now in the short term. We need to embrace a mix of upskilling using apprenticeship models, as well as continuing to open up the invitations to new entrants into a business to make them fit for purpose, able to pivot now, and in line with future needs.

The ability to connect content and knowledge to those that need the knowledge, as much of this may be a mix of formal accredited programmes as well as a rich stream of practical CPD, may be something we could be smarter on.

Notwithstanding the challenges we face, with the current and post pandemic position and the additional complexities it has brought, I would suggest that the need to embrace the emerging talent pool with no less appetite than in previous times – we may need to do this more. The industry challenges that our sector faces - needing more digital skills, higher levels of those meta-skills that are increasingly being channelled into our apprentices through the high-quality programmes in place. The flexing and pivoting of content and structures that has been adopted and facilitated through SDS and the network they facilitate has made fantastic steps to ensure that industry can continue to pull through the talent pool, ensuring this is not a barrier to sustainable growth.

#ScotAppWeek21 is a fabulous way to help showcase through peer case studies many of the practical and pragmatic ways that have impacted positively in businesses and organisation, directly attributable to contributions from early talent and apprenticeships.

I would recommend that you follow the stories as a starter, engage more if already doing so, and if you have not done so in the past then make 2021 the year that you turn your gaze to the programmes and support mechanisms that can bring you that future impact through people and talent.

Visit apprenticeships.scot to find out about apprenticeships and the support available to take on an apprentice.

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