The leading engineering training provider in the Yorkshire and Humber region
New skills support is vital for the region’s role empowering UK Plc – HETA chief on this week’s huge apprenticeship reforms
There are few more concentrated areas where the skills challenge around engineering disciplines plays out in real time, than on the banks of the Humber.
The industrial belt around the ‘Energy Estuary’ brings together power, refining and heavy process-led manufacturing, providing so many of the resources required for our daily lives. From turning the lights on in your bathroom, to the whitening agent in your toothpaste; the staircase you walk down while clutching your phone, hoping the lithium battery has enough charge for the day ahead, to much of the food you find in your fridge, the cupboards that surround it and the fuel in your car – it can all can be traced back to the industry, innovation and skillsets on the Humber.
Our renewables credentials are now world-leading with the largest wind farms built and operated from here, the manufacturing and maintenance an exemplar to all. While the rapid development may have sat at odds with the area also being home the most carbon-intensive industrial cluster – it is the engine room of the UK after all - there’s now a clear clean growth strategy to future-proof this vital industrial landscape of pipes, chimneys and flare stacks, interlinking the green new technology and the ‘black’ fossil fuel legacy that has had our back around here for so long.
Not only will it create thousands of new jobs should the ambitious proposals be realised, but it will protect and enhance all those behind what happens now, where pride remains strong with the expertise in oil and gas, still such vital commodities in a just energy transition. Firm plans, many taken through complex design phases, are primed in hydrogen production – some with the potential to feed off electricity from offshore wind when generation is surplus to the grid’s needs - alongside carbon capture, storage and transportation for the hardest to abate plants, biofuels and further power generators for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
All has been mapped out, all could provide the dual benefits of significant economic stimulus and strategic environmental pathway, desired in Westminster, desired by shareholders and expected by a population that relies on business and industry to do the right thing.
What we face with this £15 billion deployment of private investment into infrastructure is a huge requirement for engineers. Fabricators, pipefitters, welders – those skilled in mechanical, electrical and instrumentation control. Add automation, robotics, design and project management, quality and process improvement. The list goes on.
This demand on our doorstep is why we at HETA have warmly welcomed the £725 million package of reforms to the apprenticeship system, with the government promising that 50,000 more young people are to benefit from skills delivery.
Announced this week, it came as we launched our employer recruitment process for our 2026 cohort. We want to equip 260 learners with the vital skills this area needs, providing opportunities for life. The desire is there, we have witnessed record applications this year. The possibilities trades offer are clear to school-leavers, the myth that university is the only successful outcome has been shattered, and rightly so. These careers offer remuneration that can often outstrip professional positions in other sectors, at pace.
This year we’ve already seen our largest number of apprentices emerge from their first year at our new £5.5m Grimsby site, while also launching dedicated support with schools and colleges to ensure budding engineers don’t miss out on opportunities if they’re not quite ready for the next step. We’ve added six new standards to our apprenticeship offer for 2026, and I’m proud to say we’ve been on the front foot doing our utmost to meet this skills challenge, acutely aware of the aging workforce and demand on the labour market looming.
But we’re caught in the midst of major decision-making around policies and projects, with uncertainty not helping either the larger or smaller operators as spending reviews, Budgets and competitive investment rounds to win political favour and Treasury backing have been followed. Often with SMEs, the margins are tight and the hiring of an extra hand is not an easy decision, but they also need to be ready to deliver should these huge plans be greenlit.
This is why I’m particularly enthused by the focus on engineering and targeted support for the SME sector. We work with many businesses who will benefit from the measures in this announcement; those who form the vital supply chain of skills and services required to maintain and expand the industrial might of the Humber region, and will help deliver the incredible pipeline of projects.
I look forward to working with the DWP to realise this across our three excellent centres on the Humber, in Hull, in Grimsby and in Scunthorpe, from where we support more than 400 businesses with their future-planning and around 750 apprentices with theirs.
When it comes to ensuring clean growth, energy security and prosperous employment opportunities, this region provides the most bang for each buck, and investing in the next generation should rightly happen now.