Category: News & Updates

The gender gap is an issue many male-dominated industries are looking to close. It became such an issue that in 2018, any business or company with over 250 employees must report gender pay gaps, which still applies to date. This enforcement of reporting inconsistencies encourages companies to address their equality in paying wages.

However, the gender gap goes beyond the wages, with the manufacturing industry having significant gaps in the number of employees representing the female gender. At European Springs, we strongly believe in the positive impact closing the gender gap can have on the road to where equality remains as nothing more than the box you tick for data collection.

The Importance of Women in STEM

Studies have shown that since 2010, there has been a 16% rise in women in STEM studies and careers. This rise took the original 562,000 women to an impressive 963,000 in 2021. Whilst this increase is welcomed by the STEM industries. However, it is a long way off from closing the gender gap.

When there are amble labour and skill shortages, closing the gap is not only to increase the awareness of equality in the workplace, especially one so heavily male-dominated, but also to assist the UK in achieving a complete workforce. Furthermore, by supporting and actively participating in female recruitment, STEM industries could help relieve the pressure off overworked staff and increase productivity and morale within the workplace.

Women are vital, especially within the manufacturing process. Many developments, apps, products and much more are not considerate of the female gender due to the significant lack of women in the manufacturing process. Take Apple, for example. On the release of its health app in 2015, it neglected to equate women’s health requirements. This fault was due to the gap in female leads on the project. Without such, it meant the app was centred around the male physique.

Another example of such is butchering. All the standard equipment that most commercial butchering facilities provide for safety doesn’t equate to the natural size of women compared to men and leaves them with unsuitable health and safety wear which could cause significant issues. With more women in the planning, designing and manufacturing positions, the more these errors would be eradicated.

Opportunities Available for Women

Considering women equate to approximately 48% of the labour market, there is still much work to do to close the gender gap within manufacturing. For example, only 8% of women take up apprenticeships in manufacturing, and only 11% of women are currently in executive director roles.

Whilst there is no official exclusion of women, and they are always welcome to apply for any role within the STEM industries, there is still more which could be done. Positive discrimination and more flexible skill requirements, such as soft skills over hard skills, would help to bridge the gap for women.

Soft skills have historically been associated with women but can offer just as much value to a project as hard skills such as IT literacy. Soft skills such as leadership abilities, organisation and quick learning can offer a company much more valuable assets than industry-specific experience.

However, there are many opportunities that women can take advantage of to help them kickstart their careers in the STEM industries. For example, Brunel University in London offers a very successful program for graduates called Women in Engineering and Computing. Since its rollout, they have assisted over 600 new employees in finding positions within STEM industries. Although they are not as widespread as we would like to see as a spring manufacturer, it is the start of aiming for an all-inclusive sector.

Another fantastic opportunity for women is the Meri Williams Scholarship for the University of Bath. This scholarship is offered to all women or non-binary students who wish to work within the STEM sector and will cover £9,000 for the course. Assistance like this goes a long way to encourage more of these students to follow fulfilling careers and have opportunities to change the world, which many other industries don’t offer.

Supporting Women In STEM Careers

As an experienced pressing company that strives for an equal industry, we offer a fully comprehensive engineering apprenticeship program open to all genders and skill levels. We take on apprenticeships year-round, with most of our apprentices being provided with the opportunity for a full-time career in their area of expertise. We also support development through in-job training, allowing staff to progress in their careers without needing to look for a new position elsewhere.

The STEM industry has significantly upped its self-awareness of the gender gap. With many organisations set up to support women and non-binary into stem careers, including the likes of STEM Women, which showcases all the jobs available, working alongside universities, employers and students to find the suitable match for all.

If you would be interested in a career with us, learning about our processes as spring suppliers, you can enquire online using our contact form. One of our helpful team members will get back to you with more information about all our courses and opportunities accessible for women wishing to begin their STEM careers.

For many years, manufacturing companies have attempted to create a permanent solution to the labour shortage. But unfortunately, these unfilled positions have a distinctly negative impact on the industry, which is why it’s vital to find new ways of supporting people interested in starting a career in manufacturing.

At European Springs, we firmly believe in the positive effect of new people on the industry. Each individual can not only bring a unique perspective on working processes, but they can be a worthwhile investment in managing new technologies and ideas during a long and profitable career.

What’s the Manufacturing Skills and Gender Gap?

Over 270 thousand businesses exist within the UK manufacturing industry, making this industry a prominent part of the national economy and a significant part of the jobs market. However, despite this wealth of positions, there is a considerable recruitment shortage across all STEM sectors.

At the start of 2022, the British chamber of commerce predicted record-low recruitment figures as part of their quarterly recruitment outlook. These figures represented the increased recruitment difficulties that 79% of employers are struggling with, for which there are many reasons, but most commonly, it’s attributed to the lack of skilled labour.

The struggle to find skilled labour parallels the industry’s technological improvements. To remain competitive, STEM businesses are constantly exploring innovations and advancements such as cloud computing, industrial IoT and CNC machines. These improvements allow compression spring manufacturers such as ourselves to significantly optimise our work methods and process, increasing our efficiency while also maintaining higher productivity.

Unfortunately, these changes have led to skills gaps and labour shortages that were a struggle to solve. Upskilling team members into new positions has been an excellent tool for improving the adaptability of the STEM workforce. Still, we believe the long-term solution is to embrace the benefits of engineering apprenticeships.

One element of STEM industries that we strive to change is the misconception that it’s a male-orientated career choice. As expert tension spring manufacturers, we are aware that female representation in manufacturing is relatively low. However, we firmly believe that equally, both genders can bring significant improvements to our industry when the path is taken through one of our apprenticeships or as a STEM graduate initiative.

Progress on Filling the Skills and Gender Gap

Despite these issues, these troublesome gaps are slowly closing thanks to apprenticeship schemes and post-graduate initiatives. New research taken by EngineeringUK has revealed that progress is being made, with a 6% increase in female engineers to 16.5% over the comparative 10.5% reported in 2010. These percentages represent the original 562,000 women employed in STEM jobs which increased to 963,00 in 2021. This coincides with the general staff increase from 5.3 million in 2010 to 5.6 million in 2021. Additionally, thanks to various supportive initiatives, the number of female engineers has been steadily growing even when the total number of engineers dropped in 2020 and 2021.

Changes like this prove that both genders profit from successful careers in manufacturing, and employers can gain a lot from encouraging women to join them as engineers.

Examples of Success

Ireland is home to some of the best institutions for studying STEM, with the University College Dublin, NUI Galway and Trinity College Dublin all providing prestigious courses to get any woman started on her manufacturing career. This can be enhanced by exploring the many funding opportunities available to postgraduates. With the increased innovations being developed for manufacturing each year, the opportunities for female apprentices or postgraduates have never looked better, which has also had a significantly positive effect on increasing the staff numbers for STEM jobs.

Many scholarships and bursaries specifically aim to provide an accessible route into the STEM sectors. For example, Brunel University in London offers a hugely successful program for graduates as well as undergraduates called Women in Engineering and Computing (WiBEC). Since its inception, this mentorship scheme has supported over 600 female students in their goals to start careers in manufacturing or STEM.

In 2021, UCAS data provided by HESA had shown a notable increase in female STEM students to 35%, a total of 112,720 women pursuing their goals of finding a career in manufacturing or other STEM sectors.

The adoption of EDI principles has been a big step in allowing female engineers to help fill the skills gap. In addition, many manufacturers have embraced the equality, diversity & inclusion guidelines (stated in the EDI) to assist in creating a more diverse workforce.

Manufacturing Apprenticeships at European Springs

As experienced spring manufacturers, we at European Springs Ireland support these initiatives with our highly successful apprenticeship schemes. We also celebrate the 23rd of June as National Women in Engineering Day (NWED) annually because we firmly believe that everyone can enrich the industry.

Our apprenticeships follow the Mechanical Manufacturing Apprenticeship framework and award a BTEC Level 3 certificate in Engineering operations and Maintenance. Please contact us directly if you’d like to know more about our apprenticeships.

Continual growth and progress are essential parts of being successful in this highly competitive manufacturing industry. At European Springs, we embrace the changing nature of the industry as we all move to an eco-friendlier approach to our manufacturing. We continually work to find new innovative solutions that match the UK government’s goal of Net-Zero carbon by 2050. In this blog, we’re talking about one such new idea to help reduce our industry’s carbon footprint, Air Source Heat Pumps.

What are Air Source Heat Pumps?

An Air Source Heat Pump (or ASHP) is a machine designed to provide heating for your workplace at a much higher efficiency than most methods and is more cost-effective. An ASHP achieves this because it transfers the heat it absorbs from the outside air into the designated indoor space.

The ASHP is connected to your existing heating setup, so you don’t have to make extensive changes to your building; just augment your current system with a superior upgrade. Specific air source heat pumps can also be used as a cooling system during the warmer summer months; you’ll find both installed outside of a building or on the roof to allow space and ventilation.

There are two main types of ASHP:

• Air to water heat pumps transfers the outside heat into your central heating system to provide radiator heat, hot water, and anything else installed by your heating system.
• Air to air heat pumps do much the same, except rather than transferring the outside heat into your central heating system, the warmth is transferred directly into the room via a fan.

Are Air Source Heat Pumps Affected by the Weather?

Whilst warmer weather is better for ASHPs to operate, they still work effectively in cold weather. Warm weather allows the machine to function at 100% capacity efficiently as it is unhampered when extracting the warm air and transferring it where you need it.

During colder months, it will lose efficiency down from 100% to roughly 80-90%, which will marginally increase your heating bills as the machine compensates. This problem usually occurs when your ASHP has exposed piping rather than covered.

Choosing how you install your ASHP will depend mainly on the severity of the weather your business endures year-round; as spring manufacturers in Ireland, we encounter only short periods below freezing, so an ASHP is a perfect choice for our needs.

Advantages of Air Source Heat Pumps

There are many advantages when investing in an air source heat pump, but its low carbon footprint is one of the most prominent. They even have the ability to be used with a zero-carbon emissions rating. This zero-carbon rating is a green energy tariff that is agreed upon between you and your energy supplier.

Green Electricity Tariffs

Most energy suppliers have the option of a green tariff that helps their customers be a part of renewable energy sources. The supplier can manage this because they match the electricity used to verify sources of renewable energy. For example, wind farms, solar panel arrays or hydroelectric power stations are examples of where they match the energy used for your air source heat pumps. These renewable energies are then fed back into the national grid; the more businesses that sign up for it, the more green energy is in the supply.

Renewable Heat Incentive

The Renewable Heat Incentive (or RHI) is another advantage of choosing ASHP for your heating. This scheme, supported by the UK government, encourages businesses to install renewable energy technologies and offers financial support to achieve this. ASHP systems are eligible for this grant, making them an excellent choice for your company’s approach to helping the environment.

Net-Zero 2050

Over a quarter of the UK’s electricity is generated by wind, solar or hydro. With so many options for renewable energy, its become more accessible than ever for a business to contribute to the Net-Zero initiative while saving money on their energy bills.

The Net-Zero initiative plans to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions to zero. It’s an achievable and affordable vision to substantially help the environment but will heavily impact gas spring manufacturers and many other sectors and industries. The current phase of this initiative is to reduce emissions by 78% (which is -63% relative to 2019) by 2035. By choosing to be a part of these green tariffs and adjusting your working processes accordingly, even the busiest manufacturers can be proud of their positive impact on the environment.

Low Maintenance and Easy Installation

Another advantage to these heat pumps is how easily they can become part of your current heating plan. Installing an ASHP is easier than installing a ground source heat pump due to the many choices available for installation, especially if you time the installation with any other builds or renovations you have planned.

Air source heat pumps require very little attention once installed. Booking a maintenance service once a year is recommended but simply making sure your external ASHP is unobstructed by any debris such as leaves or rubbish, your ASHP should run smoothly year-round.

Disadvantages of Air Source Heat Pumps

One disadvantage to note is that they can be noisy. The air to air units will create substantial noise as they transfer heated air into your building, but this problem can be solved by carefully choosing the best place to install your new ASHP.

As mentioned previously, your average ASHP will have lower performance when working in colder temperatures, specifically below 0°C will have an adverse effect as the unit will need to work harder.

The cost of use for an ASHP is not much different from any current heating plan. However, the investment required to install it and replace your current system will be significant. This problem is solvable through the aforementioned green tariffs and grants, such as the Renewable Heat Incentive.

Springs Manufacturers and Suppliers

We at European Springs & Pressings believe that our role as a springs manufacturer and pressings company requires adaptability to the shifting economies and the environmental needs around us. We are confident in our industry’s ability to address these issues with new and innovative designs such as air source heat pumps.

If you are interested in any of our services, please don’t hesitate to contact us online, and one of our engineers will happily answer any of your questions.