From 22nd -26th March 2021 trade association tackling the erosion of British Industry, The Made in Group, launched the interactive virtual careers fair - Made Futures. Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street joined the group’s Directors at the virtual launch of the event where he highlighted the importance of manufacturing for the bounce-back recovery of the West Midlands economy.
With manufacturing making up for around 23% of the UK economy coupled with the millions of people losing their jobs due to the ongoing pandemic, The Made in group launched the Made Futures project to connect UK job seekers with their 500+ manufacturing members.
Kicking off the groundbreaking exhibition, The Made in Group’s CEO Jason Pitt, Director Ilona Pitt, Managing Director Charles Addison and Andy Street Mayor of the West Midlands held a launch event via zoom to thank members and job seekers for getting involved.
“Made Futures is a unique exhibition and we spent months building it. We created the virtual exhibition predominantly to support the ongoing skills gap in manufacturing” Jason Pitt, CEO of the Made in Group, explained at the launch event.
The Made Futures project saw a week-long virtual exhibition where job seekers, graduates and students could attend for free to network with manufacturers with job vacancies available, alongside the opportunity to attend events and receive an employability certificate. In addition to this, the Made in Group also launched a new jobs board www.madefutures.com where members can list their job vacancies as a permanent feature and job seekers can upload their CV.
Jason continued: “British Industry is a really important part of the UK economy and arguably it is the wealth generation of the nation-state, therefore it is important we maintain capacity and skills and make manufacturing attractive to young people.”
Charles Addison, Managing Director at the Made in Group, added: “We have hosted numerous initiatives, panel discussions, and roundtables around the topic of skills in the sector and this project is a combination of all of the ideas that arose. We represent over 140 billion pounds of UK manufacturing, if we could help empower you to be an effective conduit - that is the goal.”
Closing the opening speeches from the Made team, Director of the Made in Group Ilona Pitt took her opportunity to thank members and the Made team for making the event possible: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the management team, employees and suppliers for their hard work and dedication and of course our members for their ongoing support - without them this event would not have been possible.”
Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street finished the launch event mentioning that it was a privilege to be part of Made Futures, he continued:
“We all know about the rich history of manufacturing in the West Midlands - the birthplace of the industrial revolution. Manufacturing is still so important to our economy - a higher proportion of our GDP than anywhere else in the country comes from manufacturing. 24% of our GDP comes from exports of goods in the west midlands and only 8% in London - it really does show the huge significance of our manufacturing sector here whether it be automotive or anything else - 40% of cars exported out of the UK are made in the West Midlands and over 50% of RND is in the West Midlands.
Though the manufacturing sector was hit badly, with news of slow demand and businesses closing shop, it is fantastic to hear that many businesses are bouncing back. It is on the basis of that I am so proud of what you are doing with Made Futures because we have got to think of how we bounce back.”