New UK electric vehicle battery plant could recruit workers from KitKat and soy sauce factories
Gigafactory aims to supply 600,000 UK-built EVs per year
If the UK is to be an automotive powerhouse as it switches from combustion cars to electric vehicles, experts agree it will need its own “gigafactories” — huge battery plants supplying the car industry. Investment in this area is below what it could be but the people behind a new facility in the West Midlands believe there’s another issue to address: a shortage of workers with the necessary skills. To address this, recruiters are looking outside the auto industry for potential employees… including at those currently in the food industry.
West Midlands Gigafactory, a joint venture established by Coventry City Council and Coventry Airport as a public-private enterprise, has hired a leading electric vehicle and hybrid technology recruiter to help find the workers it needs, and he has identified a number of food producers that have remarkably similar production processes to battery makers.
The firm EVera Recruitment specialises in the sector, and its CEO Steve Doyle has been hired to help with the recruitment process. The mission is to employ up to 6,000 highly skilled members of staff directly at the gigafactory, while thousands more jobs are set to be created in the supply chain. Estimates predict that the new plant, which will manufacture lithium-ion batteries to be supplied for electric vehicles, could be responsible for producing up to 60GWh of battery storage.
Doyle comes to the table with 25 years of experience in the field, while also being an ambassador for Stem (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning. He set up the UK’s first EV recruitment division in 2008 and has helped established manufacturers and new tech firms to set up teams based in the field of EVs. These teams have often featured staff members that have come from outside of the automotive sector.
“In an industry facing skills shortages, we need to implement new recruitment models that can overcome this and succeed quickly,” Doyle said. “The skill sets within the gigafactory space are often transferable from the automotive, pharmaceutical or food industries.
“For instance, if you break the production line down into stages and look at the lithium powder mixing section, you quickly realise that it’s very similar to what Nestle is doing with its KitKat line. Coating sections are very similar to processes in the printing industry. And then for the electrolyte-filling section of the production line, I found a company that was putting soy sauce into sachets for sushi restaurants.
“These are near-neighbour skills that can be usefully applied for batteries.”
“If you look at lithium powder mixing, you quickly realise that it’s very similar to what Nestle is doing with its KitKat line.”
West Midlands Gigafactory hopes Doyle’s hiring will help to accelerate the recruitment process, with the objective to find the right candidates from Coventry and the surrounding area.
The project plans to inject £2.5 billion of investment into the region and the objective is for it to be one of the largest industrial facilities of any kind in the UK. It will also target the use of 100 per cent sustainable energy.
The West Midlands is considered to be the skills capital of the UK for manufacturing, so the Gigafactory project will gain access to current and future automotive talent. In addition, while more than 800,000 people are employed in relevant sectors such as EV, battery and chemical engineering, some 3.6 million people of employable age are available in the region.
“It is vital at this stage of our project to assign a leading industry skills ambassador to support the success of our recruitment process in a market facing a skills shortage,” said West Midlands Gigafactory project director Mike Murray.
“We are thrilled to have Steve’s guidance and wealth of knowledge to educate the next phase of the project as we look to secure what is most important — the people.”
Councillor Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change at Coventry City Council, said: “Powered by 100 per cent sustainable, clean, green energy with direct access to a Net Zero transport and logistics infrastructure, we hope to show future employees how advantageous West Midlands Gigafactory is for the UK and with Steve’s experience and guidance, how convenient it is too.
“Coventry is leading the green industrial revolution and our ambition for a gigafactory is about climate change and about skills and job opportunities.”
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- If you were interested in the new EV battery factory, you may also like to check out all the car makers’ electric vehicle plans
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- Or read how the Britishvolt battery factory was bought out of administration
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