Global Manufacturing Technology Show

Exhibition Centre Liverpool

19th - 20th November 2025

Join The First Manufacturing Industry Skills Shortage Hackathon

What is a Hackathon?

A Hackathon is an intensive working session where industry experts collaborate to solve major challenges. It fosters innovation and teamwork in a creative environment.

Hackathon Topics

We've identified four core challenges facing the manufacturing industry.

Upskilling
As manufacturers embark on the relentless and ongoing transition that manufacturing 4.0 demands there is an ever-growing urgent need to train and upskill their workforce.

Education to Workplace Pathways
What is the current pathway? Is it clear enough? Do young people know how to get from point A to point B and why? How can we better educate the next generation on how they break into engineering and why it is an exciting career.

Engineer - A Rebrand?
Does the job title ‘Engineer’ need a rebrand? Does the career term ‘Engineering; need a sales campaign to sell itself? Should Career Advisors / Recruiters / Job Sites be given a sales pack on why a career in engineering can be fulfilling, creative exciting, and different?

Talent Acquisition
As manufacturers make seismic changes at breakneck speed, they need to recruit the best talent available in a huge variety of roles; data scientist, digital architect, decarbonization scientist, electronics professor, e commence engineer, circular economist to name a few. Which industries are we competing with? Which industries do we want to recruit from? What environment are those people used to working in and how do we encourage them to make the change?

Why we must act

  • 20% of the manufacturing and engineering workforce in the UK will retire by 2026 *
  • 186,000 skilled workers need to be recruited annually to fill the gap *
  • 36% of manufacturing vacancies are hard to fill **
  • 51% of employers are not collaborating with training providers ***
  • 41% of manufacturers are not actively attracting young people.
  • 60% of young people (16-24) would not consider a career in manufacturing ***
  • The lack of access to skills is a significant business obstacle.

* ECIB
** Make UK
*** World Skills

Join the first industry skills shortage hackathon and address the urgent recruitment and skills challenge facing your industry.

Skills Shortage Hackathon Details

The Hackathon spans two days, with sessions focused on each of the four core challenge. Each session includes collaborative discussions led by a professional facilitator, aiming to generate actionable solutions.

Within four weeks of the end of the show, the facilitator will issue a white paper to all participants and the industry at large collating all the hackathon sessions and providing a blueprint for the industry to resolve the skills gap.

Session Breakdown

The facilitator will introduce the session, set the out the structure for the session, and then arrange for the participants to join round-tables of approx. 12 people. Each session will last around three hours.

Elect Chair 5 minutes
Highlight Issues 25 minutes
Develop Solutions 90 minutes
Report Back 10 minutes

Timetable

Wednesday, 19th November 2025
Education to Workplace Pathways 09:30 am - 12:30 pm
Upskilling 13:30 pm - 16:30 pm
Thursday, 20th November 2025
Engineer - A Rebrand? 09:30 am - 12:30 pm
Talent Acquisition 13:30 pm - 16:30 pm

JOIN THE TASK FORCE HACKATHON

Create positive change by contributing to solutions to the industry’s biggest challenges by joining the Hackathon and/or recommend a colleague to do so. Get in touch with us to join any (or all) of the four working party task forces.

Contact Us