Steve Nash welcomes the new PM

“Clearly the immediate priority for our new PM is to fix the issues on utilities and other operating costs which are already causing significant stress for fleet operators and the businesses that support them. But the PM also needs to avoid being too short-sighted. 

The longer term issue of skills won’t go away and if the UK is going to achieve its sustainability targets we have to remain focused on skilling up the workforce for zero emissions as well as doing what we can to make apprenticeships in automotive as appealing as possible. It’s all too easy for the role of the automotive workforce to be forgotten – even become invisible.

But without people who have a commitment to continuing professional development linked to evolving automotive technologies, the UK economy will grind to a halt. Right now we don’t have the right number and quality of technicians to keep all forms of mobility on the roads – from the trucks that move our goods to the vehicles that are essential to get to school, work and care for family members. And crucially, we need to be future-proofed for the next generation of mobility, namely connected and autonomous. 

It is critical that the government under the new PMs leadership supports the IMI’s efforts, along with the Sector Advisory Group, to establish appropriate industry skills standards within IMI TechSafe^TM for Connected and Autonomous covering data protection and cyber security.”