Bob Harris should be used to this kind of attention, after being ECA president 1997-98, but he’s not. The photographer finishes and Harris comes over and shakes my hand.
We are in ESCA House, ECA hq. I am here to interview Harris in his capacity as chairman of the ECA Education & Training Committee.
Harris takes his seat again, flanked this time by two marketing staff. I’m ushered around to the other side of the table and it feels as though it’s me in the spotlight, not Harris.
I sit down and look across. He has changed. Instead of looking awkward he is now relaxed, but alert and waiting to begin the interview. Education and training are close to his heart. You can tell.
Harris launches straight into the fray with a personal mission statement: “I believe that companies are becoming more challenging, and more demanding to run, and managerial advancement can only be achieved through the training process.
“My philosophy is that the industry needs people with different strengths. If we want to diversify into different areas we need employees who are skilled at managing people, who can develop their training needs to create managers who can run a diverse company.” He leans forward now, pressing home the point. “We don’t just need one kind of individual. We need a broader spectrum of skills if we are to take on all of the new technologies that are out there to grasp.”
Harris is talking about a multiskilled industry. Electrical contractors carrying out skills including mechanical and security installations, fire detection and alarm systems, data cabling, maintenance, commissioning and programming. But this is not all that he means. Looking at a broader picture, Harris sees the need for more training in disciplines such as estimating, buying and design.
The only thing that restricts the electrical industry in the disciplines that it can take on is a lack of suitable people to tackle them
These good intentions must be put into action to make a difference though, so what is the Education & Training Committee doing about it? “We are working towards a complete career structure, putting together NVQs and training for supervision, buying, design and so on. These disciplines are all included in the building services engineering based NVQs. And, we are looking at providing status and qualifications for those already in the industry, and for graduates looking towards our industry.”
This all sounds forward thinking and proactive, but how do you get potential candidates for these new opportunities to enter an industry which is having trouble attracting anything other than negative press, at the hands of militant sparkies? Harris sits back and considers the question. His marketing staff squirm. There is a moment of silence, then he leans forward again, forearms positioned purposefully on the table, hands clasped. “Over the last ten years we have found it harder to recruit the higher ability students. There is a tendency for them to stay on at school and then go off to university.
“The way the government funds the education structure doesn’t help. Schools have a vested interest to maintain their sixth forms.” So what can the ECA do about it? Harris sees the problem as a promotional one. “I recognise that we haven’t made ourselves look attractive to the outside world. We must demonstrate that there is a whole raft of challenges within our industry, an industry that is broadening day by day.”
Harris leans forward again, gesturing with the flat of his hand: “The only thing that restricts the electrical industry in the disciplines that it can take on is a lack of suitable people to tackle them. We have to attract not only school leavers but 18 year-olds.
“We need to provide different routes into the industry. We have to develop a more effective way of attracting graduates into companies.”
He sits back and stretches his arms over his head: “This is why we need more than one type of individual. The bringing together of all the different disciplines will open up more opportunities for young people, particularly intelligent people, who would not have been interested in our industry before.”
He stands, we shake hands again and he leaves. Job done.
Source
Electrical and Mechanical Contractor
