Westminster Hall
20 October 2026
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Westminster Hall House of Commons
Follow its sittings00:11 - 00:16
Speaker 1
Order, order. I call Richard Quigley to move the motion.
00:16 - 00:42
Speaker 3
I beg to move that this House has considered manufacturing skills. Thank you, Chair, and may I say what a sublime pleasure it is to serve under your superb chairmanship. I must begin by thanking my honourable friend the member for Derby South, who due to his giddy elevation to PPS has allowed me to hijack his debate and talk about the Isle of Wight. Derby has also quite rightly received a lot of focus, so now it is our turn. While I will of course continue to argue that the Isle of Wight does best at everything, it would be unfair of me not to recognise what Derby does exceptionally well.
00:42 - 00:57
Speaker 2
Whether it is trains, aerospace or the development of small modular reactors, coupled with the exciting Team Derby initiative announced in last year's budget, it is a city that demonstrates the value of bringing together industry, skills and investment to drive growth. Now, I'll give way.
00:57 - 01:42
Speaker 5
Indeed I will. As an MP for Derby, or as our Prime Minister called it, the great city of Derby, we have a city that is famous for its advanced manufacturing and engineering skills, and our largest employers like Alstom, Rolls-Royce and Toyota are able to invest in skills through apprenticeships. And just last week, Great British Railways, which will have its headquarters in Derby city centre, announced up to 600 new apprenticeships. But would my honourable friend agree with me that what we need is even more government focus on enabling and supporting smaller manufacturers to invest and train up new apprenticeships to address the skills shortages that we have across the country?
01:42 - 01:58
Speaker 2
I thank my honourable friend for her intervention, and the great city of Derby has two great MPs. And I totally agree entirely with her point, the more we can do for small businesses to encourage them to take on apprentices, but anything that takes people that wouldn't go down the university route through a set of skills and into paid good paid work is is absolutely ideal. I will indeed.
01:58 - 02:25
Speaker 4
I thank my honourable friend for giving way. We see a challenge in my region where foreign direct investment comes in, builds a big factory, hoovers up the existing skilled workforce from local SMEs and there isn't the pipeline there to replace them. So does he agree with me that it's really important that regional government takes on a role working with the FE sector and employers to ensure that there's a proper joined-up skills system so we're not just bringing in new business but we're supporting our existing SMEs as well?
02:25 - 04:42
Speaker 2
I thank my honourable friend's intervention, it's a really good point. On the Isle of Wight we have we send 25% of our school leavers to university, but also exactly 25% end up as NEETs. Now the amount of effort that goes in the structure and support around getting to university, you can see you can see how to get to university from the moon, but we don't put the same structure around those that would end up not going to university, so it's a very good point that we need to encourage homegrown skills. Now, I know some of you will be used to hearing me complain about the everyday inequalities islanders face. Don't worry, I'm not going to mention ferries, however today is a welcome opportunity to celebrate an area where the island truly punches above its weight, and that is in the advanced manufacturing sector.
Per capita, the Isle of Wight has one of the highest concentrations of technology and advanced manufacturing businesses in the country relative to our population. What is particularly exciting is that we are showing no signs of slowing down. New investment, growing businesses and the development of future skills are helping to ensure that the Isle of Wight remains at the forefront of advanced manufacturing for years to come. Far from being a peripheral economy, the island is helping to shape the industries of the future and proving that innovation can thrive in every corner of the country. Take shipbuilding as an example.
Once seen as a traditional industry, it is now a showcase for advanced manufacturing, and yet again is an industry in which the island excels. At Wight Shipyard, aluminium welding skills are among the best in the world, while Diverse Marine combines that craftsmanship with cutting-edge design and innovation to produce vessels that are lighter, more space-efficient and use less fuel.
That success is built on the achievements of island businesses who are leading the way in advanced manufacturing. Companies such as Vestas are helping to power the UK's transition to clean energy through the manufacture of wind turbine blades, while GKN Aerospace and BAE continues the island's proud tradition of high-value engineering and world-class aerospace expertise. Johnson Electric develops and manufactures precision motion technologies that are integrated into products used by millions of people around the world, and Rheinmetall's specialist vision systems provide advanced capabilities for defence and security operations across the globe. Then there is Inflight Peripherals Limited, a company whose design innovation reaches millions of people every year. If you've ever sat in an aircraft cabin and plugged your headphones or device into an in-seat power module, there's a good chance you've experienced a piece of Isle of Wight manufacturing without even realizing it.