THE latest meeting of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology Alliance took a long look at the skills gap facing businesses trying to grow despite the scarcity of candidates.

More than 60 attendees from Sussex-based SMEs and the education sector heard from the speakers.

They were Sir John O’Reilly, chairman of the ERA Foundation, Maggie Philbin OBE, CEO and co-founder of Teen Tech, and Professor Andrew Lloyd, Dean of the College of Life, Health & Physical Sciences and Professor of Biomedical Materials at the University of Brighton.

Both the audience and presenters agreed that the UK has a number of fundamental education issues and that the government needs to get the conditions right in the UK for the industry to help itself.

Youngsters need more guidance on the opportunities in the sector and the chance to take a closer look at roles in the work place.

There is not enough focus on technology subjects in the SATS tests taken at age 11 and GCSEs keep changing.

Next year’s results for instance will not be based on any course work so students will need to memorise information for an exam.