On the day UK manufacturers published a new report recommending action to improve workers’ digital and green skills, Metro Mayor Dan Norris discussed it with report authors Make UK, when he visited an Emersons Green-based business supplying braking systems for commercial vehicles.

Mr Norris, whose Mayor responsibilities include skills, met some of the 55 staff at Knorr Bremse, and talked with representatives of Make UK, a national organisation championing and representing the needs of manufacturing businesses. Its report is called ‘Unlocking The Skills Needed For A Digital And Green Future’.

Amongst its findings are that fewer than half of UK manufacturers are confident the appropriate levels of education and training are currently on offer to enable them to deliver the skills they need to make goods in a more sustainable way to help reach net-zero targets. It urges the government to transform the education and training market, and for businesses to fully engage with this process.

Dan Norris says:

“On my visits to businesses across our region I see good examples of workplaces, equipment and job roles being adapted to meet the needs of a world in which climate change is not a bolt-on, but a fundamental part of everything we do.

“As Metro Mayor I want to encourage, accelerate and spread the good practice that’s out there, so that people have access to meaningful and satisfying green jobs for which they have the right skills and training.

“My ambition is to bring 23,000 new green jobs to the West of England. These are central to ensuring we play our part in tackling the climate and biodiversity emergency.

“It was goof to get the thoughts of Make UK and Knorr Bremse about what’s needed here in the West of England.”

Knorr Bremse supplies commercial vehicle manufacturers with complete pneumatic braking systems, which are stored at, and distributed from, a large warehouse at its Emersons Green site.