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MP pushes the case for engineering
MBTC-26-11-12- Nadine Dorries MP. Westoning.
Mid Beds MP Nadine Dorries was joined by the chief of an engineering firm in Silsoe at a debate to discuss engineering opportunities for young people at Westminster on Wednesday.
Jungle MP Ms Dorries called for the debate in Parliament with the Under-Secretary of State for further education, skills and life-long learning Matthew Hancock, to discuss encouraging young people to take up engineering as a career.
She was joined by the chief executive officer of Silsoe engineering company Autotech, Andy Robinson, who has been running an apprenticeship scheme with his company to encourage more people to take engineering as a career.
But Ms Dorries said the firm has had to turn business away because there are not enough qualified engineers in the industry, but had later made steps to solve the problem.
In the debate she said: “Autotech’s business relies on being able to find well-trained, highly professional engineers.
“However, this has become difficult and is actually reducing the company’s ability to grow.
“That a British company has had to turn down tens of millions of pounds worth of business, much of it from abroad, because of an inability to find the right people to carry out the work should be a fact that both alarms and shames our economy and all of us in this House.”
She added: “Taking what I consider to be a laudable long-term view of its ability to create success, the company has now started the Autotech Academy to train cohorts of apprentices under the tutelage of experienced engineers.
“However, the problem remains now.
“It will be several years before the first apprentices are highly skilled enough to complete the most difficult work themselves and, crucially, train future apprentices themselves.”
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Thursday 23 May 2013
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