Closing the Engineering Skills Gap: How a ‘Grow Our Own’ Model Works in Sheet Metal Fabrication

Universal Wolf’s ‘Grow Our Own’ programme is helping upskill sheet metal fabricators. It’s one way we’re investing in British manufacturing and ensuring that our customers receive the highest quality work. 

What is ‘Grow Our Own’? 

‘Grow Our Own’ is Universal Wolf’s internal colleague development programme — it’s one way we make our pack stronger. 

For example, Universal Wolf is a people-centric organisation, so it’s important for our leaders to be people-centric too. This isn’t always the case at other local manufacturing companies, where leadership is focused more on managing the product and production line. 

Universal Wolf’s values are ‘better’, ‘smarter’, ‘pack’ — we approach complex fabrication with the attitude that ‘good’ is never good enough, and that our people are the best way to unlock a higher quality of work. Not everyone shares those values. 

For all these reasons, we chose to ‘Grow Our Own’ and develop in-house colleagues on the journey from sheet metal fabricators to team leaders and beyond. Now, we’re helping the existing team to develop the necessary skills and values to drive our business forward, rather than recruiting externally to hire those leaders in.  

And it’s worked: “We’ve not hired a team leader externally for years” says Kerry Patterson, Head of HR at Universal Wolf. 

Our programmes are practical by design; they’re more action-oriented than theoretical.

This has been very successful for nurturing the next generation of manufacturing leaders — it makes for a more rewarding and approachable model for colleagues “who have just come off the tools and may not have been in a formal learning environment for quite some time”, Kerry explains. 

Why is it important to ‘Grow Our Own’?

The UK manufacturing sector has a tension to resolve. 

On one hand, the drive to ‘Back British’ means it’s never been more important to find and keep skilled workers who can help deliver volume. And yet, recruitment and retention are infamously challenging for manufacturing companies looking to scale. 

By growing our own, we’ve established a more reliable and resilient talent pipeline — a way of ensuring we can meet the market’s evolving needs and play a crucial role in the manufacturing supply chain. 

For example, the UK Government’s Defence Investment Plan puts great emphasis on stable supply chains, increased Defence investment, and British-made components. With our ‘Grow Our Own’ programme, we can continue to deliver high-quality sheet metal Defence components and better meet the needs of Defence customers and the wider market trends. 

Of course, upskilling and securing new qualifications is good for the Universal Wolf pack as well. We are proud to invest in the future and career trajectory of our brilliant team. 

Future-proofing the sheet metal fabrication industry

We are actively helping create a resilient manufacturing workforce: 

• Last year, we upskilled 9 existing colleagues via Level 3 Apprenticeships, Level 2 qualifications (including MIG and TIG), and Level 3 NVQs 

• We hired 4 new apprentices specifically for the Level 3 Apprenticeship qualification 

• And have a further 3 existing colleagues entering Level 3 Apprenticeship programmes later this year. 

Tom Harvey joined Universal Wolf through our partnership with Port of Blyth’s trainee welder course: 

“For me, I love learning and try to learn something new each day, like how to Tig weld better or how to get a better dressing standard on my work. Last year I got promoted from Sheet Metal Worker in Training to Sheet Metal Worker. And, this year, Universal Wolf are placing me on a 4-year Level 3 Fabrication Apprenticeship. With supportive team leaders and supervisors, and other workshop members, I have grown my practical and personal skills. And my confidence in welding and fabricating has increased greatly.” 

Universal Wolf has a long history of promoting UK manufacturing and furthering the skills of our region.

Grow Our Own is one initiative we’re investing in, but we’re also working with Northumberland College and a group of other North-East-based businesses, including our sister company Tharsus, on the Northumberland Engineering Academy.  

When it comes to sheet metal fabrication, quality can’t be undervalued in the sectors we work in. 

Learn more about how we develop teams at Universal Wolf, and how our qualified team can help deliver your programme.