The first will be held at the SATRA Technology Centre in Kettering on Wednesday 14th October 2015, the day before the GTMA’s Make Measurement Matter roadshow. Entitled ‘Filling the Skills Gap in Measurement and Testing – Competency, Skills and Apprenticeships for a Growing Economy’ the day starts at 9.30am for registration and finishes at 3.45pm, and will be chaired by BMTA President and Chief Executive, Dr Jeff Llewellyn. 

In her presentation Laura Duke, Business Development for Training and e-Learning, NPL, asks ‘How is the UK’s National Measurement Institute (NPL) working with industry to tackle the skills gap in engineering and manufacturing?’ She will look at the ways that NPL can support industry to thrive and discuss working with NPL to create a national framework to encourage UK success.

A session highlighting how the Science Council has worked with Exova on professional registration will be presented by Alisdair Orr and Carol Stewart respectively. 

‘Training and Developing Apprentices and Graduates to meet Company needs’ will be the focus of Paul Saunders presentation. As Renishaw’s Training Development Manager he will discuss the journey undertaken by Renishaw to ensure the company has the engineers to meet its needs now and in the future.

Muir Porter, Group Manager, TUV-NEL will introduce the Modern Apprentice scheme underway at TUV NEL in East Kilbride, and explain how existing competency development and assessment is being extended towards the creation of multi-skilled ‘metrology engineers’.

Trevor Toman, Head of Metrology, Coventry University highlights ‘Metrology as a Skills Set and Issues with Skills Shortages’.

‘Apprenticeships — a successful talent pipeline for business?’ is the question posed by Diane Chidzey, Group Learning & Development Partner, LGC.

Philip Donnelly, Director, STEP, makes the final presentation of the day: ‘Graduates and Small Business —addressing some misperceptions’. The presentation will share some practical recent examples of what graduates have achieved on short internships in the Measurement and Testing sector along with details of a substantive national survey of small businesses and students which in many ways refutes some of these common misperceptions.

On Tuesday 20th October 2015, the National Measurement & Regulation Office, Teddington, will provide the venue for ‘The use of Statistics for the Control of Analytical Methods in Accredited Laboratories’. 

Topics will include UKAS activities and the proposed redrafting of ISO 17025 and the implementation of ISO 15189 which affects medical laboratories. Discussions will also cover the need for a consistent audit approach across sites and across the water, environmental, food and medical sectors. Presentations will include understanding measurement uncertainty, key statistical tools that can be used in method validation, controlling your AQC/IQC charts and AQC/IQC exceptions management and reporting. Coupled with talks by speakers from the water/environmental and medical laboratories this promises to be both an interesting and informative meeting. This event will be run on Thursday, 19th November 2015, at MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry), Manchester.