It has been a tough year in the world, especially in the world of training.
What with the onset of further austerity measures and business uncertainty the level of confidence across all sectors has dropped significantly.
Automotive is continuing to fight for survival around the challenges of transferring away from ICE powered vehicles.
Rail have started to feel a move by Government to control the labour force and ignore the demise of vehicle building on the UK soil. Derby (Litchurch Lane) as the biggest site for the manufacture of new vehicles has been decimated.
The first aspect of business expenditure to be cut in such hard times is training. When the fight is real and its survival then why spend money on non essential training of staff?
The good news in manufacturing terms is the defence sector, with more money going to MOD contracts than ever and a need to put the country on a war footing.
With all manufacturing suffering from increased operational costs, materials, energy, staff and competition, there has never been a more challenging time. We must ignore the trend of reducing workforce numbers and increasing use of Artificial Intelligence alone as a solution. This is wrong, not because technology is bad but because people need to develop alongside this latest Industrial Revolution (4.0). Engineering is the backbone of manufacturing in all walks and needs to be developed by up-skilling people and not down skilling tasks. Are apprenticeships working for businesses and does the proposals to down grade the assessment model inspire businesses in new talent? Now more than ever do we need to invest in our staff, fully embrace lean practises and make all what we do truly value adding.
Embrace technology, spend on the workforce and challenge the future with a cost effective manufacturing sector.

Since the Government made the decision to reverse the IR35, what does this really mean to contractors?

In a number of manufacturing businesses and especially Rail, we have seen employers pushing contractors towards umbrella organisations merely to protect themselves from adverse scrutiny from the HMRC.

The definition of employed status has become vague, it is merely about paying tax and NI contributions. Fully employed people do not pay for their own travel and subsistence, have to pay for their own tools and or indeed have to find their own work once the contract has ended.

This decision is about a common sense approach to tax affairs when contractors have to prove their conditions of employment whilst been able to claim for valid expenses. If you only work for one employer exclusively then you are indeed employed, if you are moving around from contract to contract then surely you are a contractor and hence deal with you own tax affairs and indeed pay tax, national insurance, in addition to maybe VAT and corporation tax. The UK Government have been chasing a few greedy individuals who have avoided large tax burdens however in the process have throttled the manufacturing industry, already struggling with a labour shortage, congratulations to common sense and please do not undertake a u turn on this change.