Good morning and Happy New Year to all our members. We hope you have had a restful holiday period and are ready to start the Year of Engineering with a bang. The Government has declared 2018 as the ‘Year of Engineering’ and, with MACH 2018 just around the corner, we would like to gain the support of all our members and exhibitors in championing this project. Please follow this link to the story and get in contact with Tom Lane at the MTA to pledge your support. Email Tom at tlane@mta.org.uk.
We’re now only 93 days away from MACH 2018 and we’re excited at the prospect of showcasing the great and good of UK manufacturing and engineering excellence. We’ll have plenty of MACH 2018 news over the coming months to get you geared-up for the main event.
Before we get to MACH we have the little matter of the MTA’s Annual Dinner which is returning to the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London on 8th February 2018. There is still a chance for you to book your table at this event, so please follow this link to find out more details or email events@mta.org.uk and we’ll get straight back to you.
Most of the economic news in this edition is from the end of last year, which included some revisions to the UK’s GDP data and the overall business investment trends, although the data for manufacturing and engineering were not revised. The new information released this week is the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data which showed a slower but still strong rate of expansion for the UK, while the Euro-zone and some of its key economies (including Germany) were at a record high. Elsewhere, there were small signs of weakness in Korea and the ASEAN region where the reading dipped just below 50, but the rest of the countries were in positive territory and often stronger than in November. The Bank of England’s Agents’ report was upbeat about manufacturing, supporting the recent data and other surveys. Finally, this week, the new Statistical Toolbox is available from CECIMO, including a similarly positive report on their latest barometer survey.
The MTA will be writing a formal response to two of the Government’s current consultations on, Implementation of T level programmes consultation and Institute for Apprenticeships: Occupational Maps consultation. This is a once in a generation opportunity to help influence the future of technical education to ensure it suits the needs of our industry, and therefore your opinion is important to us. So please read the story below and get involved, we value your contributions.
We also have a feature from MTA associate member Close Brothers detailing how they have been supporting the MTA and our members. So please see the story below and see how they could help your business.
The ‘Apprenticeships Work’ themed National Apprenticeship Week 2018 takes place from 5 to 9 March and is designed to showcase how apprenticeships work for individuals, businesses, communities and the wider economy. Find out how you can get involved and support this important event below.
Finally, we end on the sad news that John Till passed away over the Christmas period. John was former Chief Executive of Light Trades House Ltd which was the holding company for several trade associations relating to Sheffield’s lighter trades such as the Federation of British Engineering Tool Manufacturers (FBETM), the Federation of British Hand Tool Manufacturers (FBHTM). You can find details on how to attend the funeral below.
Thank you for reading and once again Happy New Year, we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.
