If you work in UK electronics manufacturing, you already know the truth. The pipeline of new talent is shrinking at the very moment the industry needs it to grow.
Across England last year there were 339,580 apprenticeship starts. Only 97,120 of those were in engineering and technology. Drill down further and the picture gets even tighter. The UK welcomes only 3,245 new Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree entrants each year. That is the entire national university intake for our core discipline.
For an industry that powers everything from defence to medical devices to electric vehicles this is nowhere near enough.
It is no wonder the electronics sector is facing some of the toughest skills shortages in decades. Yet in the middle of all this Texcel continues to do what it has always done. Invest in young people build skill and support new talent into the industry. We have done this for 50 years. From school tours and work experience, to T-Levels, apprenticeships and supporting masters students. It has been part of Texcel’s DNA since the beginning.
Today we have four apprentices working within our teams. They bring a level of energy curiosity and ambition. Many of our long-serving staff built their own careers from apprenticeships so we know first-hand the value of growing people from the ground up. But let us be candid. It has never been harder to run an apprenticeship programme than it is today.
A System Under Strain
Across the UK lower-level engineering apprenticeships have collapsed. Level 2 engineering starts have dropped 52% since 2017. Some manufacturers have quietly stepped back altogether deciding that the administrative burden and uncertainty are no longer worth it.
The Leigh UTC Shockwave
Our current cohort has lived through exactly the sort of disruption that makes the national pipeline so fragile. Partway through the programme their training provider Leigh UTC cancelled the course. Over half a term everything stopped. Years of partnership dissolved, leaving our apprentices stranded in the middle of a qualification with no clear route forward.
Finding an alternative was not straightforward with different pathways, standards, frameworks and colleges. We are grateful that South Essex College stepped up and agreed to take them on, otherwise we would have had to start from scratch or end their apprenticeships. Luke Vincett our Finance Director puts it simply. “We did not want to give up on our apprentices.” And he is right. Because if companies like us do not stick with it there will be no next generation of electronic engineers and technicians.
But it has not been without consequences. The commute is longer. Access is difficult. Traffic over the Dartford Crossing is a daily barrier. The apprentices have had to plug knowledge gaps bridge mismatched modules and rebuild momentum. It is exhausting for them and frustrating for us because none of this disruption was of their making.
Why Texcel Will Keep Going
Even in a broken system apprenticeships remain one of the only reliable paths into electronics manufacturing. University and industry recruitment have their own issues. Without apprenticeships our sector will contract. So we will keep offering them. We will keep supporting young people and keep working with colleges even when the landscape feels unstable because if companies like Texcel do not take responsibility we will all share the consequences in five or ten years’ time when the talent simply is not there. The future of British electronics manufacturing depends on us holding that line.
