Indian steel industry

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A global dilemma.

Issued at 2011-12-24



Developing and maintaining a skilled workforce equipped to cope with changing customer demands, raw material and process needs and a dynamic marketplace is nothing new. Looking at an article published in Foundry Trade Journal in 1961, the need to develop options to train foundry technicians and professional engineers was considered fundamental to the industry’s future. Here we are 50 years later, still discussing the same dilemma – and, despite the huge boom in BRIC nations, the problem of training tomorrow’s foundry engineers is not confined to the western world.

 A recent straw pole of World Foundry Organization member countries found that the majority of the countries quizzed about the issue reported serious national concerns about the dearth of appropriately trained individuals to work in the industry in their country, let alone have the competence and experience to drive the industry forward as globalisation gathers pace.

 

Representatives from Japan said they were particularly concerned that their foundry engineering education sector was falling behind the rest of the world, but their fears only echoed those of many European countries and the Americas.

 With the exception of the Czech Republic and Poland, which have high academic associations with the cast metals industry with a number of universities and are still witnessing high levels of applications for engineering and foundry specific courses, most notably at PhD level in the Czech Republic, most other nations reported a lack of availability of suitable candidates matched by a reduction in academic routes for them to follow. It is hard to ascertain which came first – the lack of accredited academic courses or a shift in demand for industrial engineering professions. In Poland Prof J Suchy reports that 200 students joined the Foundry Faculty at Cracow AGH this year. However, despite the clear academic route available for fledgling foundry engineers to take, he said there was a growing need for vocational training options in to the future.

 

When looking at the challenges to be faced in education and training, clearly there are two important areas to consider:

  • A skills shortage – the industry is struggling to find qualified and experienced people for specific roles
  • A skills gap – employed people do not have all the skills needed to perform specific tasks

In the UK, there has certainly been a move away from practical, craft based careers in the past half century. From the striking workforces of the 1970s to the plant closures, followed by a technological IT boom and the more recent wave of media-related professional aspirations. As attitudes have taken the man on the street from a pioneering industrialist to a wannabe television presenter or pop star, or a financial whiz kid, our academic institutions have followed and our universities have succumbed to a demand for more general courses to fuel demand. Interestingly with the demise of the financial services industry and the fall from grace for many city fat cats, there seems to have been recent recognition that with an engineering-based economy comes innovation, further development and a buoyant society. But is this all too little too late? It’s unlikely that a second Industrial Revolution will occur in the UK. Currently many foundries are having to ‘fight fire’ and adjust to the retirement of their ageing workforce in the knowledge that the replacements for these workers are not available. In 2009, 37% of ‘hard to fill’ vacancies were for ‘skilled trades people’ which broadly speaking is Level 3 Technicians(1).

 In the IMechE report “Meeting the Challenge: Demand and Supply of Engineers in the UK”, the institute claims: “Forecasts suggest that the UK needs to more than double the number of engineering graduates if it is to meet the likely demand in the period to 2017.” This will be because it is “likely that the next 30 years will see technological changes at least as great as those of the last 30.”

 

The Institute of Cast Metals Engineers (www.icme.org.uk) has responded with the development of a Foundation Degree in Casting Technology, facilitated through Bradford College and supported in the form of grants for students from the Tor Lodge and Applecross Trust (www.torlodge.co.uk)

 

ICME is also actively involved in the professional development of people employed in the industry at all levels, from technician, through incorporated engineer to chartered engineer status. A number of vocational training courses are available and both personal and company training can be made to suit most foundry-specific needs.

 

The wider picture

Four years ago the European research project EuroIng looked at ways to develop a postgraduate qualification for foundry engineers from middle and east European countries to compensate for the lack of qualified personnel in the west European foundry industry. Participants in the project included foundries in Germany and Poland along with associations, universities and educational centres in Germany, Spain, The Netherlands and Poland.

 The project found that although there were more than enough graduates from the countries concerned they were not skilled in technical or professional qualifications in terms of foundry engineering. It also reported that they were generally lacking in soft skills so would be unsuitable for quick integration into management roles(2).

 

If we look to Germany we can see perhaps the best model of how to maintain a high skills base. There is a long-standing tradition of foundries and universities in Germany remaining in close collaborative contact. It is of course the home of several academic powerhouses including RWTH Aachen and Duisburg-Essen University where many a young foundry engineer has studied. Student education is application-orientated because the country has a sophisticated understanding of the importance of practical relevance in university studies. Managerial, communication and foreign-language skills are all also recognised as important traits. The EuroIng project did ascertain that the need for qualified engineers was in high demand. Interestingly in this study, Germany stood alone as the only country taking part where the foundries in the country rated the practical relevance of universities as good. Foundries in Poland, The Netherlands and Spain were less impressed with the practical aspects of university courses.

 Of particular concern is the recognition from the project that: “There is no participating European country in which the percentage of those aged ‘45 to under 65’ is less than 38% in the foundry industry. Within the next 10 to 15 years, the workforces of these may be ‘bled white’ if there is no change in the orientation of their HR planning. As employees retire, the technical knowledge they have acquired over many years drains away, a massive loss indeed.”

 Rest of the world

Of note is that Turkey seems to be another shining light in terms of having a large labour pool to draw from as reported to the WFO in 2010 and 2011. Tudoksad, the Turkish Foundry Association, reported that there were plenty of people wanting to work in the foundry industry(3).

 

In South Africa vocational training has been developed to help satisfy the demand for skilled employees. Representing the South African Foundry Association, Adrie El Mohamadi, said: “Education and training for vocational students is improving. The country currently has 18 candidates training in the second year so will have 18 fresh moulders, patternmakers and foundrymen next year. Collaboration with German universities will potentially yield five exchange students in 2011. The industry sees this as a good long-term solution for training problems.”(4)

 

During the economic downturn in 2009, the Norwegians took the opportunity to re-evaluate and further develop training material for the foundry industry which will be advantageous in the future.

 

The Americas report similar problems, specifically in Mexico which is looking towards next year’s World Foundry Congress in Monterrey to offer some answers to the country’s growing need to train skilled workers for the foundry industry. Meanwhile the United States is finding it increasingly difficult to attract skilled workers and is suffering from similar industry image problems to those faced in Europe. American manufacturing companies cannot fill as many as 600,000 skilled positions according to a recent survey from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute. The survey, “Boiling Point? The skills gap in U.S. Manufacturing,” revealed that 67% of manufacturers have a mod4erte to severe shortage of available, qualified workers and that 56% anticipate the shortage to increase in the next three to five years. The American Foundry Society (www.afsinc.org) has a number of vocational training courses and material available to help.

Perhaps most telling is the fact that the foundry industry faces challenges to attract people in all parts of the world – even those witnessing sharp rises in production and witnessing their own internal industrial revolutions. Reena Bhagwati of Bhagwati Autocast told the WFO General Assembly in 2010 that she welcomed the organisation’s decision to put education and training at the top of its commission agenda. She said: “India witnessed 15% growth last year and the country has invested a great deal in education and training. The county is facing huge problems at top and bottom level attracting new people into the industry and would welcome the new education and training commission from the WFO. Skilled manpower remains a top priority for us.”

 Mike Swartzlander of Cast Strategies LLC has spent several years in India and echoes Reena’s concerns: “Yes, finding and keeping qualified foundry engineers and other professionals for a foundry is a challenge in India. Actually, getting and keeping even foundry skilled and unskilled labour is the single biggest complaint I find when I travel now to Indian foundries. Some of this is the failure for foundry managers to keep up with rising pay expectations. Much of it is the ‘image’ of the industry, as compared to other industries.”

Meanwhile the Pakistan foundry association said the country needed “support for technical skills of its people”.

 China is answering its problems with investing in training and education and developing an industry that is growing year on year. It is somewhat difficult to ascertain the numbers of trained foundry engineers graduating each year but there are plenty of academic routes for them to take and the China Foundry Association is conscious of the need to develop its people in line with the rest of the world.

 Currently the WFO is developing an international commission to look at the challenge facing the global foundry industry to train and develop a skilled workforce for the future. Whatever its findings and suggestions this is sure to be an ongoing dilemma for all parts of the world into the future. The need to find suitable people to work in the industry will be critical to its success but it is also important to continually improve capabilities and develop employees in all parts of the world.


Source: Foundry Trade Journal



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