News

The work that ESCO is currently doing to raise awareness of UK electronics’ capabilities has been featured in the January issue of Global SMT and Manufacturing magazine. You can read this article, which starts at page 8, by clicking here

Onine booking is now available for our next counterfeit awareness seminar, which will be held at the 1VS Conference Centre in Victoria Street, London on Thursday 19th February.

This seminar will build on our previous seminars by providing an update of the work being undertaken by various groups to combat the threat with presentations from many of the UK’s leading domain experts. Delegates new to this issue will get a greater insight into the problem and how to access current information and support to reduce the risk to their businesses while delegates with prior knowledge of the problem will learn about the most recent developments in the threat and support to mitigate against it.

Today the Government is marking the fact that two million apprentices have taken up their posts since 2010. A highly skilled workforce is critical to the future competitiveness of the electronic systems sector and apprenticeships will play a bigger role in the future of the industry. 35,000 electronic systems companies throughout the UK collectively employ 850,000 people and expect this to rise to 1m by 2020 through increasing both the quality and quantity of employees in the sector. Many senior executives in our industry started out as apprentices and have reached the highest levels in global multinational companies, so we already know the potential that Apprentices offer to the future of our sector. To enable companies in our sector to take full advantage of the apprenticeship programme, an Electronic Systems Trailblazer has been established to enable companies in our sector to design the standards that meet business needs. We are looking to develop standards across Levels 2 to 7, the equivalent of GCSE through to Masters level, and look forward to working with BIS to developing the future recruits that will make the UK a more attractive location for inward hi-tech investors. To see the Government press release, click here

Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced two new measures today that give the green light for driverless cars to take to UK roads from January 2015.

UK cities can now bid for a share of a £10 million competition to host a driverless cars trial. The government is calling on cities to join together with businesses and research organisations to put forward proposals to become a test location.

Commenting on the announcement, Sarah Macken, Chief Executive of ESCO said:

“It’s good to see the legal barriers to driverless cars being removed. UK electronic systems companies are leading the charge in developing this revolutionary new technology by developing the kit that will bring driverless cars to our highways. This emergent technology presents a real opportunity for our £80bn electronic systems industry”.

ESCO is the Electronic Systems Community coordinating strategies of the UK’s leading trade associations in the sector working with 30,000 UK Electronics Systems businesses, supported by the UK’s leading Electronics Systems companies such as ARM, Imagination Technologies, Plastic Logic, Siemens and many others.

You can read the Government announcement in full here

Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock recently announced a £30 million fund to increase the supply of engineers, to encourage more women into the sector and to address engineering skills shortages in smaller companies. The fund will enable engineering companies to establish training programmes to develop future engineers and boost the number of women in the profession.

£10 million of the fund will be directed to a call to ‘Developing Women Engineers’ and £10 million to a call to ‘Improving Engineering Careers’. A further £10 million will be made available in the autumn to develop engineering skills in smaller companies. The calls have been developed in consultation with professional institutions and leading engineering companies from across the sector.

The announcement forms part of the government’s Employer Ownership Fund that enables employers to design training projects that can address skills shortages holding back their business, providing 50% match funding to employers.

‘Developing Women Engineers’ and ‘Improving Engineering Careers’ are the first of a series of focused calls, centred on priority sectors that play a key role in ensuring the UK’s global economic competitiveness. Prospective bidders are encouraged to explore how they can support employees, particularly women, looking to return to the sector and how individuals with relevant skills can be helped to progress to become fully qualified engineers.

The fund is open until 12 noon on Friday 5th December 2014. Bids can be submitted any time Monday 10.00 am to Friday 12.00 noon each week during the open call. Applicants will receive a decision within 5 weeks of their application being submitted.

The maximum Government contribution is £1.6m and the minimum is £40,000. The total grant allocated is available over financial years 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17. Funding for the final year will be provisional as the department does not have a budget beyond the current Spending Review period. Funding is available subject to the following criteria:

• Organisations must be registered as a company in the UK but their corporate headquarters do not have to be in the UK
• Organisations must directly employ people in engineering occupations
• The usual place of employment for all the employees being trained must be England
• Applications must be from single companies (applications from groups of companies,
• sectors organisations, sector skills councils, National Skills Academies or training Providers will not be accepted)
• The proposal is not supported by any other public funding
• Companies may apply for more than one project on separate applications. Training that is only specific to the applicants’ own business is not allowable.

A copy of the guidance document for applicants can be downloaded from here

An ESCO flyer, providing outline details of the call, can be downloaded for circulation from the library on this website.

ESCO member COG is organising the 12th CMSE Europe event, which is the premier conference on the engineering, design, and use of COTS electronics in military and space systems. There will be a one day workshop and a two day conference with a dedicated exhibition.

CMSE is a technically focussed event looking at research in materials and components, new technology and component application advice. It also aims to highlight the latest industry topics such as obsolescence management, tin whiskers, and radiation effects on modern semiconductors.

For further information, click here

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Customs legislation is changing in 2016 with the introduction of the Union Customs Code (UCC), which will introduce a variety of changes to customs requirements. Authorised Economic Operators (AEOs) will also get further benefits from the changes over non participants in the AEO scheme.

AEOs already benefit from facilitations for customs controls or simplifications for customs rules or both, depending on the type of AEO certificate. The EU is also in the process of negotiating mutual recognition agreements with countries outside the EU, which will benefit AEOs trading with those countries. Agreements have already been signed with China, Japan and the USA and negotiations are ongoing or planned with Canada, Korea, Russia, Singapore and Turkey.

However, take up of the scheme has been very low in the UK. Of the 13,200 EU businesses currently certificated, only 350 are based in the UK and, of the 16,500 current applications for certification, only 570 are from UK businesses. This compared with 7,000 applications from German businesses. UK applications are averaging four per month, so many UK businesses are missing out on the benefits offered by the scheme and potentially having their export shipments unnecessarily delayed as a result.

Finance and compliance professionals will need to take early action to consider the impacts of the new UCC on their businesses and to ensure that their businesses remain compliant - and they should also consider applying for AEO status now.

This seminar, to be held at the BIS Conference Centre in central London on Wednesday 29th October, is being hosted by ESCO, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and HR Revenue and Customs, The seminar will help guide industry professionals through the AEO scheme and the changes to be implemented in 2016 with presentations, case studies and interactive sessions.

For further information, please view the pdf document in our online library