Institute of Electrification and Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing (IESAM) -Building Talent for Growth of North East PEMD Supply Chain

Participation levels in advanced vocational Science, TEchnology and Mathematics (STEM) education and training are historically low in the North East of England. Fewer young people attain Level 3 vocational or academic qualifications than any other region. A relative lack of Research and Development activity in the region has limited sector attraction of the required skills, and local supply of advanced STEM technical skills.

Several high-value Power Electronics, Machines, and Drives (PEMD) businesses have planned investment that will confirm the North East of England as a UK leader in electrification and advanced digital manufacturing. With this industry investment, comes a clear need for vocational PEMD workforce training at all technical skill levels.

However, educational providers have historically competed, and existing skills delivery capability is variable and fragmented across the region. As such, clear PEMD training pathways are not always evident to industry and learners. Furthermore, courses are often inflexible, and assume significant proportions of on-campus, in-person attendance. This presents an immediate barrier to industry who, given business demand, cannot easily release people to fit in with education provider expectations.

The combination of growing PEMD business demand, historically low STEM education participation rates, and fragmented training provision across levels, means there is both an urgent PEMD skills shortage and training challenge in the North East. To resolve this, investment in a collaborative regional University and HE/FE college approach is needed, with strong industry engagement and input. Greater cohesion is needed to create clear PEMD training pipelines which suit industry need, ensure delivery of quality flexible vocational training pathways, develop high quality PEMD technical/engineering staff, and increase awareness of PEMD career opportunities for all learners.

For this reason, Newcastle University proposes to form the 'Institute of Electrification and Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing' (IESAM) to lead development of flexible, high-quality PEMD training. This will foster industrial innovation by plugging the chronic skills gap across every training level, and align the North East Institute of Technology (North East IoT) and key HE/FE college providers across the region. This comprehensive, coherent PEMD skills development will provide flexible, modular, blended programme design.

IESAM will be a blueprint for national expansion, through a multi-regional focused upscaling. The proposed flexible delivery approach, enhanced by digital/online content, will be informed by industry and research, and aligned to the National Electrification Skills Framework and appropriate qualifications.