Skills are the lifeblood of industry. Skills fuel productivity, efficiency, creativity, and the toolkit of innovation which help to make our organisations fit to compete.

Second best will not do; microelectronics is a global industry in which the very best business and technical brains compete in ever changing market arenas. To remain competitive in the long term we need to be united and invest in the requisite skills through research, education and training initiatives.

NMI has demonstrated a long term commitment to driving the skills agenda through a number of carefully chosen skills initiatives since it was established in 1996. In recent times our attention has been focused on young engineers entering the industry. Through our own research and feedback from members we identified systemic deficiencies in the skills pipeline evidenced by a significant fall in degree uptake and concerns over industry readiness of graduates.

Introducing UKESF

By working with partners we were proud to announce the launch of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) at the 2010 UKEA Skills Summit in London. UKESF has now been establish and readily accepts responsibilty for improving the quality and supply of employment ready graduates to industry.

UKESF is so much more than a scholarship programme (although this is a key component) - it boasts a full range of activity from schools all the way through to employment. A key feature of the programme is that it works with existing initiatives and key players; it is crucially accessible to the smallest employers as well as the large. In this way UKESF is designed to attract the most appropriate young talent and groom them for rewarding and fulfilling careers in the sector.

For Further Information

Dr. Wendy Daniell leads the UKESF programme

Email: wendy.daniell@nmi.org.uk

Visit: www.ukesf.org