2024 Election and What it Means for Metal Casting

The recent successful establishment of the Labour government is a sign of significant change for our country. After all the destabilising events, such as economics, the pandemic, and conflicts we’ve successfully withstood over the last few years, we at Dean Group International are excited to see what the future holds for our industry and the wider manufacturing sector.

Read on to see how we predict the government's shared plans will benefit our industry and keep the UK as a leader in high-quality metal casting.

Industry-Focused Manifesto Goals

Initially, one positive aspect is that each competing political party's manifesto had a similar theme of promoting improved industrial strategies. Additionally, however, Labour was developing a significantly more advanced manufacturing plan to bolster our national industry. With Labour's victory, it's important to refer to their manifesto to accurately assess the success of these initiatives during their terms of office, such as the ones listed below.

Manufacturing in the North West

There has been a remarkable improvement in general manufacturing success across the whole of England, with the current Make UK Regional Snapshot Outlook 2024 showing growth in at least one metric in every region. In the North West, there have been fluctuations related to the UK's changing economy and government initiatives, but despite various challenges, the region still came out with a growth increase of 26%.

We have grown from a 6.5 score in 2023 to a 6.9, making us one of the standout areas of UK manufacturing, which makes sense when you consider that facilities like our UK foundry contribute almost a 10^th of the UK's economy from here in the North West.

These scores are a representation of various relevant factors, from the output of the region's manufactory facilities to the orders received, employment, and national investment intentions. Make UK calculates this data from their quarterly report, which is an invaluable resource for efficiently reviewing the state of the industry.

Unfortunately, the investment and employment in the region have not grown or kept pace with the national average, being just 8% instead of the required 9% gains. Fortunately, however, the new government has plans in place to support this.

Formation of Supportive Skills Councils

In a move strongly advocated for by Make UK, the Industrial Strategy Council will be formed to create a unified approach for the UK's economic sectors, including manufacturing.

While the council aims to provide coordinated support for innovation, investment, and skills development, we have concerns about it losing focus due to the its broad scope. We believe that to really benefit from this specialised training, it should be prioritised whether it's new techniques for aluminium die casting or the advanced technologies relevant to our 3D printing for investment casting at our Manchester facility, and even infrastructure improvements, like our effective international outsourcing processes for die casting from our other, international distribution facility in Irlam

The Skills England Initiative

This is a new body to be formed by the new Labour government that promises to establish a resource for businesses, training providers, and more skills to build a stronger industry in the UK. This is to support the wider industrial strategy explained earlier by combating the plummeting apprenticeship number and nationwideskills shortages.

The first action that this new body will employ is a comprehensive strategy for post-16 education, such as sixth form, A-levels and, university degrees, and collaboration with various other organisations to align the implemented training with the apparent labour market requirements.

Labour's Envisioned Future for Metal Casting

One of the main points that you'll find re-occurring in Labour’s manifesto is the desire to grow the talent pool with apprenticeships, diverse recruitment and finally, training. This goal is welcomed by various areas of manufacturing and metal casting as the decline in recruitment and education is a worry. Fortunately, promising proactive measures were taken even before the election.

Increased 18-21yr Engineering Apprenticeships

Another area that will work in conjunction with this drive is the support for 18-21-year-old work experience, apprenticeships and the generation of soft skills (thought processes and attitudes) to encourage development for highly technical sectors such as metal casting.

We expect this to have significantly positive results as we have experience with encouraging the development of future metal casting engineers when we invited young students from the Irlan and Cadishead academy to tour a facility and get a realistic view of the theory on their metal fabrication and manufacturing course.

The Growth and Skills Levy will enhance the existing engineering apprenticeship schemes and improve their effectiveness for both employers and students. A term has been generated to explain this plan: a sustainable talent pipeline. If this succeeds, then it will build a more populated and resilient workforce.

Increasing Diversity in Engineering Roles

Not long before the election announcement, various organisers from various STEM industries came together to proactively create methods for encouraging and empowering women to join UK manufacturing roles. The event was hosted by Ann Watson, CEO of Enginuity, a charity designed to help manufacturing employers close the gender and skills gaps that have plagued the industry for decades.

Apart from the universally low number of new engineers each year, there has been a specific decline in women in manufacturing nationwide by 1.2% since last year. It is believed that the government's support to promote this diverse recruitment will finally tap into this valuable national resource and potentially draw these gaps to a close.

Improved Training and Retraining

This is an interesting area of the new initiatives because training is the lowest priority after the other two recruitment-based areas. Retraining has always been a vital tool for the metal casting industry. As the development of new technologies and processes opens new doors with automation and better results, there needs to be a simultaneous growth in new skills for engineers.

We have two contextual examples here at Dean Group International that explain this. Firstly, we have developed an automated drying room for our moulds, where we have scientifically optimised the perfect heat and time variables to dry the ceramic moulds and make them ready for pre-heating, all with minimal involvement from the team.

Secondly, we have an advanced rapid casting prototyping system that involves an industrial 3D thermojet wax printer and sophisticated CAD programs to quickly create test samples of clients' designs before committing to tooling.

This multiple-target approach ensures that not only are new workers brought into the industry with the necessary skills, but existing workers can also be upskilled or reskilled to adapt to new technologies and processes in metal casting.

Dean Group International: High-Quality Investment Casting in the UK

Whilst we are hopeful for this bright future in UK manufacturing, recent years have shown us that nothing is certain. We plan to continue being one of the leading metal foundries in the UK , as we have been for the last half-century.

Our future strategies involve continuous development and diversity of our various manufacturing processes and methods. Additionally, we are working on a plan of growth through global expansion using both our Manchester foundry and our auxiliary international shipping facility so we can offer our premium-grade investment castings, die-casting services and much more to clients across the UK and the world. Contact us if you have any questions about our range of services.