The ECA's annual conference in Stratford-upon-Avon attracted a record attendance in the Association's Centenary year. Andrew Brister was among the delegates.
here were you on the night of 1 September 2001? Few football fans will forget the time that England thrashed Germany 5-1 in Munich, but the date will be memorable to many for another reason as well – a hundred years of electrical contracting was celebrated at the ECA Centenary Gala Dinner at Warwick Castle.

The spectacular dinner was the culmination of the 2001 ECA Electrical Industry Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon. A record audience of over 900 was on hand to witness ECA president Ian Crosby chair the first session: Meeting occupational skills and safety needs.

Dr Hilary Steedman of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics advises government on how it can improve its apprenticeship programme and gave delegates several pointers as to where the industry could pull its socks up.

Dr Steedman was quick to point out that the electrical industry leads the way in terms of its standards of training and its completion rates. However, with apprenticeships in other industries not so demanding and often resulting in an extremely high drop-out rate, there is a general problem selling apprenticeships to young people. "Recruitment is even more difficult if you are only recruiting from half the population," said Dr Steedman, referring to the poor record in attracting females. Electrical contracting also has a worse record than most industries when it comes to attracting those from ethnic minorities.

Given that it is also easier than ever to go on to further education, then little wonder that there is a serious recruitment problem. All is not doom and gloom. Dr Steedman told delegates of plans to introduce vocational GCSEs into schools; these will better prepare youngsters for a technical apprenticeship. She also urged the industry, via its national training organisation NET, to "ensure that an apprenticeship in the electrotechnical industry can lead on to a Foundation Degree to attract young people away from a full-time degree". During the q&a session, Bob Harris, past president of the ECA and now chairman of NET, said: "We have not faced up to the fact that we are not going to source our labour force from 16 year olds. We need to restructure industry training to accept 18 and 19 year olds and embrace adult learning."

Brown: industry’s profitability is appalling

Sir Ken Jackson is of course no stranger to the ECA conference. As general secretary of the AEEU, he has been instrumental in forging alliances with employers long before partnering became the buzz word it is today. Indeed, the electrical contracting industry, via the Joint Industry Board, has been in partnership for over 30 years.

While Sir Ken welcomed the recent three-year JIB wage agreement, he called for a major sites m&e agreement to be enacted sooner rather than later and warned delegates that the AEEU will use Rule 6.1.2 to enhance their earnings if no progress is made on the issue. "The rates are not high enough on major contracts," he said.

On safety, he urged employers to nominate safety representatives or be forced to suffer roving reps from other sectors. "The AEEU will provide the training," said Sir Ken. "You are 50% less likely to have accidents on sites with safety representatives."

The second session, Delivering better electrical and mechanical services, was introduced by ECA director David Pollock. The four Cs – customers, competence, convergence and competitiveness – were the factors driving the ECA's strategy, said Pollock.

Steedman: time to look to vocational GCSEs and foundation degrees

On convergence, Pollock pointed out that over 60% of ECA members doing more than £1 million of business undertake mechanical installations as well as electrical work. Many work directly for clients who want a single point of responsibility.

Competitiveness is of course a constant driver. To stay ahead in today's demanding environment you have to improve productivity. Which brings us neatly to Eddie Brown, long-time contractor and now a consultant developing the ECA/HVCA benchmarking programme.

Brown gave a stark reminder of the reasons why you should embrace benchmarking. "The industry's underlying profitability is appalling, the average is less than 1·5%," he said. "I am yet to find a satisfied customer where an m&e contractor is losing money, so we have to do something to improve profitability and customer satisfaction."

Brown's team has already developed a project delivery model and this year should see the introduction of two more suites of key performance indicators, which will complete the picture from order pursuit to service and maintenance. The objectives will surely appeal to all: improved customer satisfaction, better quality proposals, reduced costs and improved margins, and better motivated employees.

Harrower: selection on value as well as price

As president of the AIE, the pan-European confederation of electrical contracting associations, John Harrower is well placed to bring delegates up to speed on what is happening in Europe in terms of the selection of contractors.

The EU Public Works Directive, which applies to contracts above £3.2 million, could provide the impetus to finally move selection of contractors into the realms of value for money rather than lowest price via examination of the EMAT, or economically most advantageous tender, designed to eliminate abnormally low tenders.

A selection matrix is built up by giving scores of 0-3 for quality, price and life cycle issues and by then applying a weighting (for example, a project might be 35% quality, 65% price) the most appropriate tender emerges.

Last speaker of the morning was CIBSE president Professor Max Fordham. His presentation explored issues surrounding constructability and sustainability. "The integration of services into the building has to done better if we are to improve profitability," said Fordham. He saw detailed early design as critical in the drive towards better quality, better safety and better profitability.

Spellar: £180 billion is up for grabs in transport

On sustainability, Fordham said the industry must look to techniques such as passive ventilation and cooling and natural lighting to drive down energy use. In the longer term, with fossil fuel stocks set to dwindle, alternative energies such as solar, hydro and wind will have to be embraced.

Many of these issues will be familiar to conference regulars. Delegate David Bartley asked the panel what would be different at the ECA's 150th anniversary conference? Most telling was the response of HVCA president Peter Hoyle: "It will be a joint ECA and HVCA conference and it will be called the Building Services Contracting Conference."

Day two saw the manufacturers take to the stage. Joerg Winzenhoeller of Autodesk, supplier of Autocad design software, gave delegates an insight into the marriage taking place between software and the Internet. For example, designers selecting a luminaire from Erco's web site can simply drag and drop the desired product on to their Autocad drawing. The image will have dimensional data and pricing information embedded in it, speeding up drawings and bills of quantities etc.

Voltimum is an electrical installation portal launched by seven leading manufacturers. Set to go live early in 2002, Margaret Fitzsimons gave contractors a glimpse of what they can expect, including product updates, industry news, tender management tools and a labour pool. There will be a subscription charge for some of the services.

Joe Smith, general manager with Siemens Automation and Drives, rounded off the morning by asking contractors: "Are you up to speed with the latest control techniques?" Smith urged contractors to develop closer ties with manufacturers, remove the traditional barriers between electrical and mechanical engineering, and to look at function, efficiency and ease of change as well as cost.

As officer in charge of British troops in Bosnia in the early Nineties, Bob Stewart knows something about motivation, leadership and training. "Whoever is in charge has to be in charge," said Stewart. "You have to know as many individuals working for you as possible, how they will gel as a team and how the team will perform the task." Training is crucial to any endeavour, said Stewart, and he stressed the importance of delegation.

Rounding things off was transport minister John Spellar. He will oversee a massive £180 billion investment in transport infrastructure and urged contractors to get involved. "One of the things that has depressed me over the years, is the inability of the electrical contracting industry to grasp new opportunities," said Spellar. The opportunities will not only be electrical signalling in the rail business – Spellar outlined a huge investment in traffic management technology on the roads and public transport too.