Manufacturing Skills

Gideon Amos Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2026 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Christopher. I give special thanks to the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Richard Quigley) for securing this debate and setting the scene incredibly well, as he often does. I wish him well in the work that he does for his constituents; I can honestly say that they are fortunate to have him as their MP.

Manufacturing is a cornerstone of the United Kingdom, but it might be in jeopardy of crumbling as young people are not entering the sector in sufficient numbers as against workers leaving the industry. What is the background to the debate? I always give a Northern Ireland perspective and make asks of the Minister; hopefully that adds to the debate and where we are.

Employment in the advanced manufacturing sector is set to rise, with projected growth of 13% between 2025 and 2035. That is in addition to an estimated 101,000 workers expected to leave manufacturing priority occupations, bringing the total demand to around 148,000 workers. That is a lot of people to train and prepare for work. Part of that is because the manufacturing sector has a largely ageing workforce when compared with the wider working population.

A report in 2026 found that some 50% of engineering and manufacturing small to medium-sized enterprises experienced skills gaps and/or shortages. That comes despite Government support efforts, as nearly three quarters of businesses surveyed felt support to address skills shortages were lacking. That is largely unsurprising; there has been no increase in funding for engineering apprenticeships since 2020. In the last few days, the Government have indicated plans, so perhaps the Minister could tell us more about what is happening. It is the very definition of unsustainable and the quality of products will undoubtedly be affected.

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that colleges need more support to develop those engineering courses? At present, they receive no funding at all to develop a new course, as university colleges in Somerset have found when catering for the new Agratas factory. They have to find their own investment to develop courses and they receive no funding until those courses have actually started. Surely that hampers innovation, new training and new skills being developed.

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[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Christopher. I congratulate the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Richard Quigley) on securing the debate and shining a light on this really important part of our economy, both locally and nationally.

Specialist manufacturing is critical to my constituency, as well as to growth across the United Kingdom. The Agratas factory being constructed just outside my constituency will employ 4,000 people and have a huge impact on the whole south-west economy. Many of my constituents work there already, and many local suppliers are involved in the supply chain, so the regional economy will be very positively affected.

That is what specialist manufacturing can do for regional economies, but only if we get the skills right to support the sector. In this Chamber last November, I raised the work of University Centre Somerset College Group, which is based at different campuses, not only in my Taunton and Wellington constituency but across Somerset. It is the largest college provider of apprenticeships in England. UCS has had to develop a first-of-its-kind programme to meet demand that barely existed just a couple of years ago, when battery manufacturing was barely a mainstream concept in the UK. It is not an easy task, but it is exactly the kind of innovation required to build a skills base that can support the new specialist manufacturing sectors that we need, such as battery production.

To the Government’s credit, some things have moved on since then, and I genuinely welcome them. In April, they announced a £380 million grant for the factory itself, and UCS was named a clean energy technical excellence college. Last year, I called on Skills England to invest in partnerships that deliver rather than just producing consultation papers that plan and devise. In March—in just three months—it produced a battery manufacturing apprenticeship unit. That is fantastic progress, but there is a great deal still to do. The first pilot course this summer trained nine Agratas staff, but around 1,600 people will be needed just to start battery cell production.

In a written answer the Government gave last month, they said that they are

“supporting University College Somerset’s work with Agratas.”

I welcome that, but I am afraid that the basic problem I raised last year has not gone away. A college that is developing a curriculum and hiring specialist trainers in a completely new industry will receive funding from the Government or other sources only once the course starts, and, as a further education college, it is not allowed to borrow against potential future funding. The current FE model simply does not support the up-front investment that is required, and specialist skills will suffer as a result. Colleges are also no longer allowed to borrow to invest in the student accommodation that they need, even though doing so would generate income, help to regenerate towns and deliver housing—a priority of this Government—in a particular sector to relieve pressure on local family housing. We cannot expect colleges to shoulder all the risk of investments and initiatives while the Government take credit only for the positive outcomes.

This issue is not just about specialist manufacturing skills; building sites such as the Agratas facility requires an enormous amount of construction skills and labour. Figures from Agratas show that in the peak year of activity, the building of the first factory will support more than 3,000 jobs in the south-west, which is equivalent to around a fifth of all construction jobs in Somerset. That comes on top of Hinkley Point C, which is close to my constituency and also needs many workers skilled in the same area. If we are serious about boosting regional growth through specialist manufacturing, we need to be equally serious about training the people who will build and work in such facilities. The Liberal Democrats have called for apprentices to be paid at least the national minimum wage, and for lifelong skills grants so that adults can retrain for new industries.

I have four asks for the Minister. First, when the Government say that they are “supporting” the work of UCS with Agratas, does that support cover the up-front cost of developing innovative courses? Secondly, will the Government make sure that colleges can set up apprenticeships and skills training in advance of factories being built? Thirdly, does the Minister agree that colleges should be able to forward-fund student accommodation to deliver much-needed housing? Finally, will the Minister meet me and UCS College Group to discuss those points? For Taunton and Wellington, and for the whole south-west, the opportunity is right in front of us. I welcome and congratulate the Government on their backing the Agratas factory with £380 million. They now need to grab the opportunity with both hands, and provide the support and certainty on skills to turn it into a real success.