US 'behind world leaders' on XBRL uptake

News Article - 24 May 2012
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Article keywords: <p>One of the UK's leading industry professors has warned a lack of skills could cause the collapse of UK manufacturing within five years, despite current manufacturing output being higher overall than during the sector's 1960s employment peak.</p> <p>Professor John Bryson, chair of Enterprise and Economic Geography at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Birmingham, claims that whilst the manufacturing sector is currently experiencing sizeable economic growth, companies are not doing enough to increase the availability of key skills in the job market. If this is not rectified, he says, it could cause the demise of UK manufacturing as firms find it increasingly difficult to fill skilled positions.</p> <p>According to Professor Bryson, there will be 90, 000 jobs over the next five years - in the West Midlands alone - that will be 'hard to fill' due to a skills shortage. This will be caused, he says, by an inefficient education system because 'policy makers and Government no longer understand British industry'.</p> <p>The problem will be exacerbated because firms that require specialised training are mostly SMEs that lack the resources necessary to offer it to employees. Many of the bigger companies that would have been able to fund training programmes have moved operations out of the UK and are now concentrating on exploiting foreign markets.</p> <p>Professor Bryson argues that offering more obvious routes to manufacturing at key career junctures, such as GCSE and A Level, is essential to re-introducing vital skills into the manufacturing job market.</p> <p>Manufacturing firms must ensure they invest in recruitment and training programmes in order to retain the ability to recruit key talent into the future and ensure workers have the necessary skills to do their jobs efficiently. This can be difficult as many companies are currently attempting focus their attention on increasing cashflow and the management of their business and do not necessarily have time to focus on skills training.</p> <p>Whilst Access' <a href="/software/manufacturing--production/manufacturing--production-overview.aspx"> manufacturing software</a> can't solve the skills problem, it can introduce time efficiencies to manufacturing companies and help them manage cashflow more effectively. <a href="/software/manufacturing--production/project--job-costing.aspx"> Project and job costing</a>, for instance, allows businesses to compare works orders and jobs to budgets, helping to ensure more accurate projections. This is just one example of the efficiencies that technology can bring, freeing up time for senior managers, which can be dedicated to driving skills training.</p> <p>For more information, please call Access on 0845 345 3300.</p>

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