Steph on Skills powered by Enginuity

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Welcome to the podcast that dives into the fascinating world of skills, innovation, and the future of engineering and manufacturing.   Hosted by broadcaster and qualified engineer, Steph McGovern, each episode brings insightful conversations with industry leaders, game-changers, and those shaping the skills landscape.   Get in touch with the pod team at sospod@enginuity.org to share your ideas, comments or let us know your feedback.   Powered by Enginuity – the charity focused on closing the skills gap in engineering and manufacturing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Aug 10

    Vocational Celebration Day 2026

    Recorded live at Teagle Machinery in Truro, Cornwall, the first-ever Vocational Celebration Day shines a spotlight on vocational training across the UK. Steph McGovern, a former apprentice herself, chats to apprentices from all around the UK to celebrate and promote the value of the ‘hard hat’ and all those taking forging their careers using a vocational pathway. Apprentices from sectors including engineering, HR, data science, transport planning, banking, sales and more share their journeys, challenges, and ambitions. In the studio, Steph also chats to Niki Storey, Group Strategy & Transformation Director at Enginuity and Alexia Williams MBE, Technical Lead at Rolls-Royce and an Enginuity Trustee, about the importance of vocational skills and why Vocational Celebration Day was created.  Steph also meets Carrie Childs from the Cornwall Careers Hub, who shares how their work is helping to reduce NEET rates across the local area.   Hosted at Teagle Machinery Ltd, Steph meets some of the apprentices on-site who make up 20% of the company’s work force and chats to Richard Berryman, Manufacturing Director at Teagle, about ways they are encouraging the apprentices to take on new responsibilities, including taking over parts of the factory on Fridays.  Messages of support also come from the Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith, Enginuity’s CEO Ann Watson MBE, EAL’s Managing Director Alison Parkes, and Phil Smith CBE, Chair of Skills England. Plus, there’s a special performance from Adam Lyons & ‘The Paintshop Boys’  To watch the episode in full visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTauncd43LI 00:00 Welcome to Vocational Celebration Day 00:45 Inside Teagle Machinery 01:32 Meet the Apprentices 02:23 Message from Ann Watson MBE, CEO of Enginuity 04:55 Why Vocational Matters with Niki Storey and Alexia Williams MBE 11:19 Amazon Apprentice Olivia Lane 15:45 Audience Apprentices’ Stories 19:11 Factory Flashdance Moment with Adam Lyons & ‘The Paintshop Boys’ 21:02 Apprentice Ambassador Network in London 26:33 Message from the Skills Minister, Jacqui Smith 29:27 Teagle Apprentices in Action 33:45 Cornwall Tackles NEETs 35:48 Careers Skills and Networks 38:56 Apprentice Ambassador Network in the West Midlands 43:23 EAL Backs Vocational Routes 45:42 Apprentice Ambassador Network in the North East 51:45 Message from Phil Smith CBE, Skills England 53:46 Apprentice Ambassador Network in the North West 59:50 Lloyds Banking Group Apprentices in Edinburgh 01:02:06 Closing Thanks and Celebration Song Get in touch with us at sospod@enginuity.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Vocational Celebration Day 2026

  2. Jul 8

    Dame Ruth Cairnie DBE on Babcock, Defence Skills, and Building Talent Pipelines

    Steph interviews Dame Ruth Cairnie DBE, Chair of Babcock International Group, patron of the Women in Defence Charter, member of the CBI Board and venture capital investor with a distinguished international career in the engineering sector. Dame Ruth talks about Babcock’s role as an international defence contractor and major UK employer, contributing an estimated £4.3bn to the UK economy, and shares her thoughts on skills, culture, and teamwork, outlining the wide range of workforce needs - Babcock will require around 8,000 more UK hires over the next five years - and how company is approaching its talent recruitment. Steph and Dame Ruth also discuss shifting perceptions of defence needs and a change in the understanding of nuclear initiatives, the role of the UK Nuclear Skills Charter, the importance of diversity, retention and progression within the workforce and the community initiatives Babcock are championing to support their talent supply chain.  00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 00:27 What Babcock Does 01:45 Why Skills Matter 03:04 Roles and Career Paths 04:53 Early Careers Pipeline 07:02 Supporting SMEs Supply Chain 08:25 Nuclear Skills Push 09:55 Defence and Nuclear Perception Shift 11:59 Community Skills Partnerships 14:28 Making Careers Tangible 16:12 Skills Gap Challenges 16:43 New Routes into Trades 19:52 Pre Apprenticeships and NEETs 21:45 Immigration and Resourcing 23:04 Diversity and Inclusion 25:05 Ruth Career Journey 27:23 Facing Bias and Advice 29:03 Final Takeaways and Wrap Up Get in touch with us at sospod@enginuity.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  3. Jun 24

    Mind the Gap - The £5 Billion Black Hole in Skills

    A recent report from SQW, a leading UK-based consultancy specialising in economic and social research, which was commissioned by Enginuity, estimates the skills gap is costing the sector about £5.2bn each year.  Steph is joined by Cathryn Moses-Stone, Senior Policy and Public Affairs for Enginuity, and entrepreneur and former SME managing director James Greenham, to discuss this new research and dig into the realities that this economic impact is having on manufacturing and engineering SMEs. 00:00 Welcome and Guests 00:42 Why Measure the Skills Gaps? 02:35 The Reality of Hiring as an SME 04:58 The £5.2 Billion Black Hole 06:23 Productivity and Apprenticeships 07:45 SME Constraints 10:12 Navigating Skills Reform 12:48 Grants and R&D Tax Credits 14:07 Fixing Vocational Education 14:52 Networks and Final Takeaways Get in touch with us at sospod@enginuity.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  4. Jun 10

    NEET Solutions – What Happens Next?

    Steph is joined by Phil Smith CBE, Chair of Skills England, and Ann Watson, CEO of Enginuity, to discuss Skills England’s recently published Annual Skills Report which sets out the key challenges facing England’s skills system and actions for how they can be addressed. They also chat about the industrial strategy’s growth sectors, potential opportunities over the next 5–10 years, pathways for moving between sectors and how to tackle the NEET challenge of about a million young people who are not in education, earning or training.  00:00 Welcome 00:17 What is Skills England? 03:58 How Job Titles create Gender Bias 06:12 Work Experience Changes Minds 08:05 Manufacturing Hidden in Plain Sight 09:17 Skills England Annual Report Insights 12:07 Essential Skills in the AI Era 14:24 Creativity and Hands On Learning 15:48 Skills Classification and Passports 16:34 The NEETs Challenge 16:58 Recognising Hidden Strengths 20:09 AI Confidence Story 23:38 SME Skills Struggles 27:55 Skills England Wishlist Get in touch with us at sospod@enginuity.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  5. May 27

    Apprenticeships Beyond Engineering

    Steph chats with Kathryn Marshall, Senior Apprenticeship and T Level Manager at Lloyds Banking Group, to challenge the misconception that apprenticeships are mainly for engineering and manufacturing.  With Lloyds Banking Group employing over 1,300 apprentices across more than 30 disciplines, Kathryn explains the breadth of roles on offer such as audit, digital, data, software engineering and cybersecurity. Kathryn dispels the myth that you need maths qualifications to work in banking, revealing the only role where A-level Maths is a requirement, and sharing which skills matter more than subjects studied. Steph and Kathryn also discuss the way AI is impacting jobs, as Kathryn outlines how Lloyds’ AI Academy is helping its 60,000 colleagues and the ways their youth outreach is aligning with their purpose of ‘helping Britain prosper’.   00:00 Apprenticeships Beyond Engineering 01:24 Routes into Banking Careers 02:29 Actuarial and Audit Explained 06:28 School Outreach and Awareness 07:20 Digital and Tech Apprenticeships 10:00 Who Thrives as an Apprentice 11:01 Networking and Squiggly Careers 14:01 Standing Out in Applications 20:13 Family Journeys and No False Starts 23:31 AI Academy and Future Skills 25:31 Purpose and Community Outreach 27:13 Key Takeaways and Goodbye Get in touch with us at sospod@enginuity.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  6. May 13

    Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves; Building Culture in a Family-Run Business

    Steph meets Laura McBrown, Managing Director of G&B, an electronic manufacturing service provider, who has been running the family business with her sister, Kate, for the past 11 years.  Laura explains how she got into the industry entirely by accident but loved the creativity and diverse range of roles so much that it inspired her to study electrical engineering. She shares the story behind her father founding the company during the recession of the later 1980s and how the business has grown since that time, now serving the defence, aerospace, medical, and other highly regulated sectors.  Laura discusses how she and her sister are shaping the culture of the business, why team morale matters and how they approach recruitment in the face of a sector wide skills shortage.  00:00 Welcome 00:28 Family Business Origins 01:24 Industry Shift to Manufacturing 04:06 Learning on the Job 08:02 Proving Leadership and Culture 09:51 Business Today and Growth Goals 10:57 Skills Pipeline Challenge 12:20 National Manufacturing Day Tours 15:08 Making Outreach Work for Business 17:39 Building Confidence and Upskilling Get in touch with us at sospod@enginuity.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  7. Apr 29

    From Mining to Manufacturing. How Cornwall is Thriving in the Skills Sector

    In this episode, Steph is finding out about the thriving engineering and manufacturing sector in Cornwall.   First up, she meets Eric Nicholls, Chair of the Cornwall Manufacturing Group, whose members employ about 4,000 people with a combined turnover of roughly £600m.    He explains how the area’s mining heritage provided roots for what is now a diverse offering of manufactured products and services, and how a close working relationship with local colleges has significantly transformed the skills.   At Watson Marlow, Head of Manufacturing Engineering Neil Bury describes how his own career path took him from starting as an apprentice to his current role in senior leadership, which included restarting as an apprentice as part of strategic leadership qualification.     Matt Newman is another employee with Watson Marlow, who has recently embarked on a Project Management secondment. Matt outlines how a two-year engineering course when he was younger, swayed his career decision and lead to an apprenticeship in machining. He also tells Steph why he has been keen to continue learning as his career progressed and how that led to being named Management Apprentice of the Year 2024.   00:00 Welcome to Cornwall 00:20 Cornwall Manufacturing Snapshot 01:45 Heritage and Skills Shift 03:19 Collaboration with Local Colleges 04:30 Why Manufacturing Matters 05:34 Inside Watson Marlow 06:21 Neil’s Apprentice Journey 08:07 Leadership Apprenticeships Today 12:53 Work Life in Cornwall 16:41 Matt’s Apprenticeship Path 19:44 Awards and Next Steps 22:25 Apprenticeships Advice 23:42 Final Thanks Get in touch with us at sospod@enginuity.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  8. Apr 15

    Preview of the Enginuity Skills Awards

    With the Enginuity Skills Awards coming up on the 1st July, Steph sits down with the Event Lead, Ben Hope, to find out what goes into planning this highly prestigious evening which celebrates careers and talent across the engineering and manufacturing sector.  Now in its 12th year and with a record number of nominations, Ben tells us about the range of talents and categories which are showcased and why attending the Awards offers an opportunity to network with industry thinkers, leaders and new talent, as well as celebrate successes.  Steph also meets this year’s host, Swarzy Shire (BBC Sounds, Radio 1/1Xtra/Radio 4) who talks about her own journey into radio and TV and why she’s excited about the Awards night.  Tickets for the Enginuity Skills Awards are available online. 00:00 Welcome  01:12 Award Categories and Nominations 02:52 The Importance of Sharing Finalists Stories 06:34 Behind the Scenes Behind the Scenes 07:38 Networking Tips and Confidence 10:35 Judging Process and Tickets 13:14 Meet Swarzy 13:44 Swarzy’s Radio Journey  18:27 Preshow Rituals  Get in touch with the podcast at sospod@enginuity.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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About

Welcome to the podcast that dives into the fascinating world of skills, innovation, and the future of engineering and manufacturing.   Hosted by broadcaster and qualified engineer, Steph McGovern, each episode brings insightful conversations with industry leaders, game-changers, and those shaping the skills landscape.   Get in touch with the pod team at sospod@enginuity.org to share your ideas, comments or let us know your feedback.   Powered by Enginuity – the charity focused on closing the skills gap in engineering and manufacturing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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