The Enginuity Group has announced Sir Jim McDonald GBE, as its new Chair. Sir Jim succeeds Dame Judith Hackitt at the charity which is dedicated to finding new ways to close skills gaps in UK engineering and manufacturing. Sir Jim will also chair EAL, the specialist awarding and end-point assessment organisation for the engineering and manufacturing sector and related industries.
Sir Jim, current President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, is one of Scotland’s most accomplished engineers, and co-chairs the Scottish government’s Energy Advisory Board with the First Minister. He is Chair of the Independent Glasgow Economic Leadership Board and holds senior business appointments with Scottish Power, the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, Supernode and recently held the role of Senior Independent Director at both The Weir Group and the UK Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.
Brought up in Govan, the shipbuilding district in the heart of Glasgow, Sir Jim studied for his first degree in electronic and electrical engineering at the University of Strathclyde and started his engineering career as a graduate apprentice on the Scottish Electrical Training Scheme.
He worked in the electrical utility sector for seven years and returned to the University of Strathclyde in 1984 as a University Grants Commission New Blood Lecturer in Electrical Engineering. He was appointed to the Rolls-Royce Chair in Electrical Power Systems in 1993 and became Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde in March 2009.
In HM The Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours List in June 2012, Sir Jim was awarded a knighthood for services to education, engineering and the economy. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross in the 2024 New Year Honours list for services to engineering, to education and to energy.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Physics, and the Energy Institute. He is an international member of the US National Academy of Engineering and International Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He chairs two of the pan-Scotland research pools in energy and engineering and also chaired the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Committee for three years.
Ann Watson, Chief Executive of the Enginuity Group, commented: “We are delighted that we have been able to attract one of the UK’s most accomplished engineers to follow in Dame Judith’s footsteps as the Chair of both Enginuity and EAL.
“Sir Jim is known for his pioneering work in the field of energy, one of the major transitions rapidly changing the skills required by the engineering and manufacturing sector and related industries.
“Sir Jim choosing to join us, highlights the importance of the roles both Enginuity and EAL can play in creating a skills system that keeps pace with the changing needs of UK engineering and manufacturing.”
Sir Jim added: “I am delighted to follow Dame Judith as Chair of the Enginuity Board. It has been one of my career-long ambitions for as many young people as possible to pursue a career in engineering. Engineers can change the world and a career in engineering offers the exciting opportunity to benefit society, the economy and sustainability.
“I’ve often advocated for a systems engineering approach to net zero, but we need to also apply the same thinking to our skills system, to ensure UK engineering and manufacturing skills employers have the people and capabilities required to seize the opportunities created by decarbonisation, electrification, digitisation and advanced manufacturing. The Enginuity Group continues to do vital work, both within vocational education and beyond, in pursuing new systemic solutions to skills gaps.”
“I look forward to working with my fellow Board members, Ann and the rest of the fantastic team at Enginuity to help find cross-industry approaches to solve the common skills challenges faced by UK manufacturing and engineering.”
Prior to the announcement, The Manufacturer sat down with Sir Jim to find out more about his background, the engineering and manufacturing skills landscape and associated challenges within the UK, and his plans for Enginuity moving forward.
Can you give a little bit of background into yourself and your roles?
JM: As a son of Govan, I was brought up in the docklands of Glasgow. My father was a rope maker and my brothers also worked in the shipyards, so I’ve always been associated closely with engineering.
That inspiration led to me to study electronic and electrical engineering at Strathclyde University, and a career in the utility industry, during which time I undertook a master’s degree and a PhD.
I returned to Strathclyde as a ‘new blood lecturer’ when the UK government at the time were trying to enlist people with industrial experience to help shape and influence research and teaching.
Strathclyde is a very technologically focused university. It’s very deeply engaged with industry and has a strong reputation for engineering and applied sciences, which is entirely relevant for Enginuity.
The pride of my professional career to date has been as President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. I took up that role in 2019 and I’m now in the final stages of my presidency; it’s been an absolute joy and privilege to work with some of the world’s leading engineers, and of course, within which skills and talent are absolutely fundamental. So, the opportunity to join Enginuity has come at a great time in my career.
While engineering solutions, design and systems are key to the UK economy, fundamental to all of that is having high quality, talented engineers. I’d like to bring my industry experience and passion for getting young people into engineering and channel that into the Enginuity board.
What is Enginuity and what does it do?
Enginuity supports engineering and manufacturing employers to acquire and develop skills and talent, and build the future workforce they need to be successful.
It’s all too easy to pay lip service to skills and talent. However, it’s at the heart of what Enginuity is all about, which underlines a very authentic and long-standing commitment. The organisation was originally the Engineering Industry Training Board, which I remember well from my time in industry and academia. So, Enginuity is not a new player in the system; it’s a long established, highly accomplished and very respectable entity.
But now, through Enginuity Group, the charity and EAL, the awarding organisation and skills partner of the engineering and manufacturing industry, it’s a very active, contributing partner. For me, having seen a fantastic ten year strategic plan developed by Dame Judith Hackitt DBE, the CEO Ann Watson, and the team, there’s a very exciting future ahead.
The organisation is about taking engineering skills into the digital age and bringing all parts of the skills landscape together to find impactful solutions to the manufacturing and engineering skills gaps. It’s critical for the UK that the new government has engineering and technology at the heart of that agenda.
What is your take on the current skills issue in engineering and manufacturing?
The UK is in a very challenging situation with regard to the skills set that it needs. Over the past few years, the previous government kicked off a whole raft of major skills activities in manufacturing and digital skills, and that’s right and proper.
However, during the same period, a number of very significant organisations, such as Engineering UK, have been flagging a six figure deficit on engineering talent that we will require to drive the UK economy forward.
Consultancies like Stonehaven have estimated that there could be a shortfall of up to a million engineers and technologists by 2030 – these are eye watering numbers.
In addition, the average age of someone in engineering in the UK is 55; and 20% of those individuals will be leaving the profession during the next few years. So, as you can see, the sector has some fundamental challenges.
In 1999 I chaired an event for what was then the IEE, at its major conference called Engineers for the 21st Century. The problems that we were talking about 25 years ago haven’t disappeared. To the contrary, they’ve got worse because I don’t believe that there has been a coherent, collaborative or consistent focus on putting engineering talent at the heart of the economy.
As President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, we launched a major initiative along with the National Engineering Policy Centre and 42 professional engineering organisations, called Engineers 2030. This is a consultation, initially with business, industry, public sector and academia, to define what it is we want to create through this decade.
One of the great challenges we face is to not only make sure we educate and create great mechanical, electrical, civil, operational and maintenance engineers and more, but to also make sure they are part of the digital economy and understand sustainability – all the skills that a modern engineer needs.
Growth is built around investment, talent and innovation. So, for me, that means engineers have to be front and centre. Building this pipeline of engineering talent is not going to be easy, but this is where we need vision, leadership and collaboration.
We have to make sure that the vision and ambition that is laid out in government targets is followed up by concerted and focused action. We have to increase the numbers of engineers in the UK, and not just by a few.
In the nuclear industry, for example, we’re 40,000 people short across the core nuclear industry and the supply chain. In and around Glasgow, SSE, Scottish Power and the new national grid electricity system operator will need another 2,000 transmission engineers over the next couple of years. Where are they going to come from?
It’s possible that we could end up robbing Peter to pay Paul. What we’d like to do as a collective of industry, academia, government and through organisations like Enginuity, is build a fantastically talented workforce that drives the UK economy for the next few decades.
And, we need both traditional and emerging skills. We need people that understand 3D printing, additive manufacturing, advanced materials, electrical engineering and emerging manufacturing technology. But what is just as important, is what might be called the conventional skill set, such as tool making and welding, which are all fundamental to manufacturing capability.
It should also be remembered that the UK’s mission is set in the context of a very competitive international marketplace. If we don’t fill the skills gaps, then people aren’t going to be waiting for us to catch up. What we need to do is get ahead of the pack and build on the UK’s fantastic historical reputation for engineering, manufacturing and technology.
Although I’m extremely excited about how we move forward, the truth is that we are not starting from a good position. As such, acceleration and scale are what is needed. And, with organisations like Enginuity at the heart of that – working with manufacturing and engineering companies, and then ensuring that the government and the public sector agencies get behind us – we can get co-investment in what is a very thrilling opportunity.
How do you think the landscape of skills within the sector has changed since you trained to become an engineer?
If you look across the professional engineering institutions, plus other organisations across the UK, every one of them is committed to promoting STEM.
While that is good news – the energy and intention is very laudable – sometimes that landscape can be very noisy, occasionally cluttered and not as coherent as it should be. School teachers and college lecturers are often inundated by advice from this plethora of organisations.
That’s why the academy, and the National Engineering Policy Centre initiative around Engineers 2030, is trying to get that convergence of energy, where the engineering profession at large has a long-term, coherent and consistent approach to promoting STEM in schools, but doing so in a much more collaborative way.
Engineering UK is already predicting that the demand for professional requirements is growing at a faster pace in engineering than in any other profession.
Engineering is everywhere, but nowhere is it the same, so we need to re-engage and re-connect to the UK’s youth to show engineering at its very best – promoting the fact that jobs in the sector are highly rewarding.
And of course, engineering helps address some of the big challenges for society, in terms of climate change, digitisation and the journey towards automation. And it’s an exciting story to tell.
As I look over my shoulder at the past 30 years, as someone with experience in both universities and industry, there have been these flurries of activity. However, we can’t just have initiatives; rather, we must have a national programme that lasts for many years.
We need to recognise that engineers are at the heart of a healthy economy. Engineering makes up around a third of the UK economy, and a recent academy report on engineering, economy and place showed the fantastically exciting clusters that exist, from the very north of Scotland to the far south west of England – engineering communities, companies large and small, supply chains, and large manufacturers are all there.
What we don’t have, however, is a coherent plan that feeds the skills strategy into satisfying national demand. Achieving this is about clear communications, a commitment to collaboration, and then, as engineers do best, a focused delivery on solutions. So these are big challenges, but we shouldn’t be deterred as it’s also a massive opportunity.
Does there need to be more of a connection between industry and academia?
Creating that link is where I probably spend most of my professional life, and if you get it right, there can be real multiples on value.
In terms of more collaboration it should be between industry/business, academia and the public sector. I refer to that as the three strands of the triple helix.
The High Value Manufacturing Catapult epitomises that connection. In places like my own university, in Strathclyde, we’ve catalysed two large innovation districts – about £500m worth of capital investment.
There’s the Glasgow City Innovation District with 1,600 companies in and around the heart of Glasgow in medtech, space technology, low carbon energy, industrial informatics, fintech and quantum technology.
Out at Glasgow Airport, we also have the Advanced Manufacturing District for Scotland, which is part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult network and includes Rolls-Royce, Boeing, GSK and AstraZeneca.
I conceived of the Technology and Innovation Centre, which is at the heart of the Glasgow Innovation District, 15 years ago. I convened a meeting of CEOs from different companies where I extolled the virtues of research, innovation and new technologies. They were all onboard but a very senior chief executive of a large utility admitted to me that while research, facilities and ideas were in demand, what they wanted most of all is people, talent and skills.
That was a very sobering reminder for me, and the only way we’ll get that effective translation of good ideas and value is ultimately through people and innovation.
And certainly the piece around people and skills is where Enginuity can play a very significant role. There are lots of great models in every part of the UK where you can see effective collaborations between business and industry.
I’m a great believer in devolved authority and there’s an opportunity now to facilitate, empower and then invest in local clusters to provide skills for a clear business community and an ecosystem that has a very clear demand statement for skills.
What would you like to see from our new government to address this issue?
Over the course of the next few years I’d love to see an unequivocal commitment to delivery. Words have to be attractive in the context of an election. Words matter, but what matters most is delivering against commitments.
I work closely with the Scottish government, and I co-chair the Scottish Energy Advisory Board with the First Minister. We’re actually redesigning some of our activities, and skills for the renewable energy sector are absolutely critical.
Going back to that triple helix model, the key is making sure that the government, with industry and academia, and organisations like Enginuity, really promote the fantastic career opportunities that exist.
Collaboration is the real fuel to deliver against this, and that comes from economic opportunity. I don’t know how many times we’ve heard the new government talk about growth, but I think we’re going to hear a lot more on that.
I’d like to think that the new UK government will make a commitment to putting investment behind their plans. And engineering and technology should be at the heart of these major decisions. And I have an inclination that engineering will be a significant driving force behind it.
What are your plans for Enginuity?
I’ve already had some great meetings – getting immersed in the detail. I’ve also had the benefit of having a number of conversations with the current Chair, Dame Judith Hackitt DBE, for whom I have enormous professional respect.
She’s given me her insights as to how we go forward. I’ve also had fantastic meetings with a number of the non-exec board members who are a really exciting group of people – talking about their motivations and their ambitions for the organisation.
I’ll be inheriting not only a great board, a fantastic executive team and staff, I’m inheriting a very well-crafted ten year strategic plan, and as soon as I reviewed that prior to my interview, it inspired me. What I’ll be concentrating on, as an engineer, is delivering the plan, prioritising what needs to be done, having a delivery strategy and understanding where the key deliverables are.
We have an enormous opportunity. But that has to be seen in the context of working with and through others, having a high dependency on government and industry putting the investment and commitment that is so desperately needed if we’re going to build the engineering community in the UK that, quite frankly, we need.
