Forestry machine specialist Jas P Wilson has made a commitment to encouraging young people into the industry and developing their careers through its in-house education centre and apprenticeship programme, for its own benefit and that of other employers. The man behind the training and recruitment strategy is Drew Easton. Forestry Journal met up with him on site to learn more.
TAKE a look around Jas P Wilson’s facilities at Dalbeattie in Dumfries and Galloway and you may be surprised to see so many youthful faces.
In an industry with an ageing workforce and challenges around recruiting new talent – particularly in engineering – it seems this is one company that is bucking the trend. But that’s no accident. In fact, it’s taken a considerable amount of work.
Turn the clock back around eight years and things were looking quite different. The staff’s median age was in the mid-fifties, a fact which had not escaped the attention of then managing director Billy Wilson and was causing him some concern. While he’d made connections with local schools and colleges to offer work experience, it was clear this wasn’t going to be enough to tackle the challenge. What that really required was a specialist in the field of education.
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He learned that Drew Easton, head of construction and engineering at Dumfries and Galloway College – was planning to leave the role. So he approached him and asked if he would be interested in coming to Wilsons. It turned out to be a phenomenally good move.
Asked about his decision to move out of the education sector, Drew explained: “I had 32 years in education, first with Barony, then Dumfries and Galloway, and I really didn’t like the way things were shaping up.
“The college sector has faced funding cuts every year from about 2009 – unrealistic funding cuts which, after several years, became quite acute. Land-based engineering has suffered quite badly as a result. It hurts me to see how it’s all been handled.
“At one time, Barony and Newton Rigg both offered courses in forestry engineering, geared very much around craft level, whether that’s machine operating, the mechanisation side or for somebody working as a technician. Newton Rigg went a few years ago, and now the courses at Barony have gone too.
“That leaves a big hole. Jas P Wilson recruited quite a number of people through forestry engineering courses. Look at a lot of the big players like John Deere, Ponsse or Komatsu and you’ll find a lot of the guys in their workshops came through the Barony. The impact of losing these courses is big. I think, going forward, we’re going to struggle to recruit young people into the industry.”
This was Billy’s chief concern when he asked Drew to join the business. Initially he was tasked with developing the established links with schools and colleges, putting together a programme that encouraged young people to look at forestry engineering as a potential future career.
He also worked to improve the kind of work experience the business offered, to make it more valuable to those who took part, ensuring they got a real taste of working life, even if only for a week.
Many young people, even those graduating university, have never set foot in a real working environment before. With its highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce, Jas P Wilson could clearly offer a lot more than a glimpse of the engineering life.
“Billy had already identified members of staff within the business who would make good mentors,” Drew explained. “That enabled us to put together a little programme for anybody who came along for work experience, ensuring they got one-to-one guidance and hands-on training. We want them to have a really meaningful experience.
“As things gathered momentum we started to develop more of our own apprentices and in turn actually got them working with the school kids that were coming through. Peer development has worked quite well, because the youngsters are able to relate easier to our apprentices and our apprentices are able to provide a stronger story than I could.
“Jas P Wilson has done a huge amount of work with schools in the local area to raise the profile of engineering and also the opportunities, not just with us, but across the industry, to help young people make good career choices. I think it’s all about lighting the fire.”
Drew has also focused a lot of his energies on developing Wilson’s own apprenticeship programme.
Currently the business has 10 modern apprentices – four on the service engineering side and six in manufacturing engineering. Typically these are people who first came to Jas P Wilson on work experience. Apprenticeships normally last four years with ongoing training to achieve the National Standard in the respective disciplines, normally things like fabrication and welding, machining, final assembly and service engineering.
The benefits of having Drew and the education centre mean a large proportion of training can be delivered on site.
“Once we’ve identified a young person that’s sincere and genuine and understands what they’re getting involved in, that is the progression route into an apprenticeship programme,” said Drew.
“At one point, 20 per cent of the staff on site were on apprenticeships.
“The apprentice programme basically enhances the base platform. So, we’ll quite often work with colleges, young people will come with a National Certificate and we’ll build off the back of that, looking at some of the specialist enhancements. We do a lot more on hydraulic systems, a lot more on electrical and electronic control systems which directly relate to our machines.
“We also run apprenticeship programmes for people that maybe don’t want to link into the college. So we’ve delivered a number of apprenticeships purely on our own, using our own resources, underpinning knowledge as well as the practical work, again enhanced by the mentors that we’ve developed within the workplace.
“I’ve had a lot to do with a lot of other dealers and manufacturers and I don’t know any who would be able to replicate what we’ve done here. I think the fact that Jas P Wilson is one unit here, as opposed to a multi-branch business, means that we’ve got the resource, we’ve got the staff, and we’re actually able to deliver. I think all credit goes to this business for making that commitment.”
Jas P Wilson has committed to continuing to develop its education and training side of the business – and it’s easy to understand why. After all, the problem of attracting new recruits to the industry is not going away.
At present, its programmes are entirely self-funded, but there is hope this could change in the future and the broader benefits are there for all to see – not least for Jas P Wilson itself.
“It’s allowed the business to develop and grow and embrace technology,” said Drew. “We’ve really been able to utilise what young people bring to the table. They offer a completely new perspective and there’s a huge amount that we actually learn from our apprentices and the way that they’re thinking.
“A good example is machine control systems. My generation tended to look for more mechanical controls, but the younger generation are looking at fully electronic, stabilised control systems because they’re using them all the time and they have done for a number of years. Fresh thinking brings that dynamic in that enables a business like this to continually look forward.
“And I think because of the proactive approach that the business is taking we have got a younger staff than the majority of businesses. So it brings a complete refresh and different ways of thinking about things.”
Drew highlighted the example of Kyle Lawrie, a graduate design engineer currently in the third year of his apprenticeship with Jas P Wilson and Strathclyde University.
READ OUR Q&A WITH KYLE HERE
“Kyle came into the business for work experience when he was still at school,” said Drew. “So we set aside a work experience programme that gave him engagement right across the business, including manufacturing and engineering, but also looking at the service side. And from that he was able to identify where he had a real interest.
“When he chose his topics at school, he chose those related to engineering, beefing up on maths and design. Then, when he was about to leave school, we happened to be looking for an apprentice design engineer. So Kyle applied, was the fairly obvious choice, and the rest is history.
“He spends one day per month at Strathclyde. The rest of his learning is actually done on site, working with our design engineer and production manager. For the business it’s a great success story and a fresh set of eyes on the design side of things. He’s really brought a lot to the table and we’ve learned a lot from him as he’s learned from us.”
For Drew there is no doubt he made the right decision eight years ago to leave the education sector behind and take his talents to Jas P Wilson, where he has been able to help so many young people get their careers in engineering off to the best possible start.
“In the education sector I saw so many good ideas squashed simply because there wasn’t funding or there wasn’t staff resource to enable you to actually deliver them,” he said. “Whereas in this business, if a good idea is discussed a decision will be made fairly quickly to implement it.
“That has been very refreshing for me and some of the interactive projects we’ve worked on with schools have been great, not necessarily to raise the profile of the business, but to raise the profile of engineering in general throughout the region. It’s been a superb journey.
“Realistically, the industry still has a desperate need for recruiting the right type of people. Machinery engineering is certainly becoming an awful lot more technical. So we need people with a technical interest or background. And the education system, if we look at the colleges, is not actually delivering that.
“Indeed, some of the colleges that were proactive in that area have withdrawn completely. So that leaves the industry in a very, very disadvantaged position. There’s a huge void and the void’s only going to get bigger unless there’s a plan that will help to address it. But I don’t see it coming in the near future.
“I’m hoping we’re not going to have to have a crisis before we have a solution, because there’s absolutely no need.”
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