< Previous10 HERE’S WHY THE UK IS STRUGGLING TO ENGAGE CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT BODIES Anon The original EU-UK withdrawal agreement proposed the introduction of the UKCA mark from as early as 29 March 2019. The European Commission had always been clear that UK CABs would cease to be Notified Bodies on the date of withdrawal and have never wavered from that position. Like other UK CABs, our immediate priority was to shift our EU Notified Body operations so that they were located within an EU Member State, in order to maintain EU Notified Body service provision for our clients. This carried significant costs in terms of people, accreditation, etc. We also had to transfer many client contracts and certifications from our UK Notified Body to our new EU Notified Body. This was something we felt could not be charged to our clients, so we bore the cost of this. The process of creating a new EU Notified Body has been complex and challenging, with the Commission raising detailed objections at every turn, which took ages to resolve. We feel that this is because they perceive us to be a UK company, as the objections raised had never happened before. To date, we have still not managed to fully replicate our Notified Body scope in our EU legal entity. The 29 March 2019 deadline never appeared in reality, and much of 2019 was spent trying to plan for the future, with all UK guidance being based on “whether the UK left with a deal” or not. A very confusing time, with every strategy having to consider both possibilities. Things seemed to become clearer in early 2020 after the UK and the EU agreed on a transition period for exiting the EU on 31 January 2020. The position was now clear, with the CE mark being accepted for the interim period, but UKCA being mandatory for most products from 1 January 2021 (and, of course, the EU position did not shift at all). Our CAB undertook a number of investments based around this new date: bmta.co.uk How the frequent Government changes have negatively impacted the UK conformity assessment industry. From the perspective of one Conformity Assessment Body.11 bmta.co.uk •A global programme of webinars and marketing activities to inform clients of this new UKCA deadline and the need to act. •Additional certification resources employed to handle the predicted increase in demand for the UKCA Approved Body services we were offering. •Developing new Approved Body services, along with recruitment and accreditation, where we perceived there were opportunities due to the limited number of UK Approved Bodies in some areas. We invested in resources, spent significant time educating as many clients as we could and issued many UKCA certificates for clients that wanted to meet the deadline because we were concerned that we would not be able to cope with demand if clients left this to the last minute. It was, therefore, disappointing when the deadline was changed (without even the courtesy of notice or forewarning given to UK Approved Bodies) and the deadline for UKCA marked products was extended again by a further year to 1 January 2022. During 2020, we also started to plan more detailed and financially significant investments – especially around developing new laboratory test facilities that were needed to support the required testing for products falling under module AVCP 3 within the Construction Products Regulations. AVCP 3 presented a challenge, as the UK simply did not have sufficient test capacity for many of the construction products being placed on the market. The arbitrary extension of CE Marking acceptance by another year resulted in virtually all of these plans being shelved. The UK government was actively encouraging UK CABs to expand their services and capacity but could give no guarantee that the system would actually be launched or remain in place. They were also actively encouraging overseas CABs to enter the market, while the industry was actively lobbying for further extension or relaxation of the rules. For a commercial CAB, the UK framework was simply not investable. The 2022 deadline for the introduction of mandatory UKCA marking seemed firmer now. However, it was clear that many clients were no longer committing to gaining UKCA certification (where Approved Body activity was required) and many were choosing to lobby government for further extensions, based on a lack of CAB capacity. Our CAB continued to invest in the UKCA regime: •Continuing to expand our Approved Body services, along with recruitment and accreditation, where we perceived there were opportunities due to the limited number of UK Approved Bodies in some areas. •Marketing activities to inform clients of the new UKCA deadlines and the need to act. In 2021, other anomalies started to come to light. For example, the UK Pressure Equipment Regulations created during Brexit, specifically require that Approved Bodies ensure “the technical documentation and other records… relating to the conformity assessment procedures are prepared in or translated into English”. After some challenging conversations with clients, where it became clear that other bodies were interpreting this differently, the requirement was quietly and unofficially relaxed. Once again, having spent significant time educating as many clients as we could and issuing many UKCA certificates for clients that wanted to meet the latest deadline, it was disappointing when the deadline for UKCA-marked products was quietly extended again to 1 January 2023. We learned of this change when the UKCA web pages operated by BEIS were updated on 24 August, following several months of rumour to this effect. We have continued to try and educate clients about the UKCA mark and update certification ahead of the 2023 deadline. Demand is now a fraction of what it had been in 2019-20, as the market clearly no longer believes the UK government will implement the UKCA changes. We have halted all expansion of Approved Body services and put more energy into expanding our EU Notified Body activities, which continue to be challenging. We have undertaken modest marketing activities associated with UKCA, as we found it difficult to push a government message that appears to be unlikely to be implemented. Outside of CPR, the relaxations announced in June 2022 are ambiguous and have caused much confusion among our clients, who expect their CAB to be able to advise them. We are unable to advise clients, as the policy position does not seem to be clear, the regulation needed to understand the changes does not yet exist, and our questions via “stakeholder” groups remain unanswered…12 APPRENTICESHIPS – THE ALTERNATIVE CAREER PATH Sam Turner, UK Marketing & Communications Executive, Trescal bmta.co.uk Trescal has recognised the benefit of the development and training of apprentices for many years. Working with partners such as Stegta in Manchester, we provide students with the necessary experience to take the steps towards a career. The apprenticeship schemes help train a new generation of engineers; whether they stay with or leave the company, an apprentice has the skills they need to progress in their career. So, before we talk some more about what our apprentices can get out of apprenticeships, and why they have become a more popular option in recent years, Matt Gypps, UK Technical Director here at Trescal, describes his journey as an apprentice:13 bmta.co.uk There was only one thing I wanted to do when I left school; learn how to repair electronic equipment. No suitable A-level courses were available at my school (or any other school ) in the 1990s; however, my career advisor “advised” me to stay on and join the 6th form. Why? Possibly because he felt I had the potential to go down the A-Level/ University route. Maybe because a good student provides the school with good statistics and, in this day and age, an increase in funding, an apprenticeship certainly wasn’t recommended or fully understood. I’m not sure the advice given was in my best interests. I found myself looking for an apprenticeship, but due to the delay, all the opportunities with large organisations (BAE, Marconi) had been filled. However, a local calibration company was late organising interviews that year. I knew nothing about calibration, but I went for the discussion and discovered they also repaired electronic equipment and would pay me to go to college. The rest is history! I undertook a four-year apprenticeship, studying the first year full-time at a local college but still being paid. College studies continued in years 2-4 on a day release to achieve a BTEC HNC/ HND, and internally we were supported by an external training organisation to achieve an NVQ qualification. During the apprenticeship, we worked in all departments, and I was trained not just in calibration but also in repair of instrumentation by the other engineers. We also were given experience in sales, logistics, administration and finance and, by the end of the apprenticeship, had a complete understanding of the operation. In my opinion, this is why many apprentices ended up with management roles and helped drive the business forward. Some apprentices did not last. College studies and internal training can be pretty intense, and calibration isn’t suitable for all, but I enjoyed the training and development and continued with IT, Health and Safety, and management courses once the apprenticeship finished. If you have suitable candidates who are keen to learn, why stop? Ongoing training can be crucial to employee retention and make repetitive but important jobs more rewarding. I believe apprenticeships are the key to the UK test and measurement industry. A limited number of metrology-based courses are available in further education, so the training has to be provided within the industry. The tacit knowledge of the current experienced workforce must be passed on before they retire, and apprentices are the ideal channel for this. With complementary external training, not only do they gain academic qualifications, but they can bring innovative ideas and a fresh perspective to the business. During the process, you will develop an apprentice by enhancing their skills and improving their mindset and work ethic. When given the right opportunities, these rounded individuals can drive your business forward. The key to finding suitable candidates is to advertise the opportunities available and let young people know that there are other options than the 6th form and university route. Matt Gypps “ ”14 bmta.co.uk Matt has now been with the company for 32 years, but just because you invest time into training an apprentice, it doesn’t mean they’ll stay on. Apprentice longevity isn’t guaranteed. Whether an apprentice chooses to stay or leave, you can provide them with a workplace they can thrive in and teach them skills they may not have the opportunity to develop in a traditional academic setting. By investing time into them, you are supporting the industry’s future. Over the last decade, apprenticeships in the UK have risen dramatically. Why is this? Well, the success of these schemes can be partially attributed to the “earn while you learn” approach, a particularly attractive concept to anyone wanting to develop their trade, learn new skills, and move into a career. As well as this, the recent introduction of T-Levels allows students going into sectors ranging from engineering and manufacturing to legal and finance to get the best of both worlds, combining work placement with classroom studies to set them up for their future in whichever career they choose. Now, more than ever, people are choosing the practical approach to learning, getting hands-on with their education, and developing the essential skills they need to succeed. Currently, Trescal also offers non-engineering apprenticeships. Subjects such as Logistics, Customer Services and Operational Management are also available to currently employed staff as a method of development. When the current number of students in University studies has risen beyond 2.5 million and continues to rise, it seems like a more significant push on these alternate options for higher education would be more than necessary. And from someone who has obtained a degree in higher education, if these paths had been discussed alongside the route of university when I was in college, I may well have taken a different course myself. Apprenticeship schemes are a valuable alternative to traditional higher education methods for students; but also a valuable resource to businesses looking to grow their workforce with qualified, knowledgeable staff for the future. https://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/ T levels here https://www.tlevels.gov.uk/15 bmta.co.uk Yourproductsand servicescanonlybe aspreciseasthe toolsyouuseto measure. Weprovideprecisioncalibration expertiseforeveryindustryand instrumentacrosstheworld. Calibration Validation Qualification Repair Maintenance Testing AssetManagement Training Consulting Engineering Automation16 WHY VIRTUAL TRAINING TECHNOLOGIES WILL BEGIN TO REPLACE EVERYDAY TRAINING FOR MANUFACTURERS IN 2023 Dijam Panigrahi, co-founder of GridRaster (AR/VR for manufacturers) Business owners and department managers today should highly consider AR/VR and immersive mixed reality for training new employees, and to keep existing employees’ skillsets sharp with periodic retraining of newer production tools and resources. Simply put, the future of almost all learning is going to have some type of virtual component. The Covid-19 pandemic made this clear as both professionals and students reshuffled their work and studies online and even remotely. There are other benefits as well. Today’s immersive mixed reality technologies are beyond lifelike, so it allows for effective and exact training of many complex skills. VR headsets create an audio-visual experience and can be paired with physical sensors and tools to create an entire body training environment. And while this offers a certain “wow factor”, it also means it can be beneficial for potentially risky training. bmta.co.uk Augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR), also known as immersive mixed reality, have been making great headlines for video gamers. But the technology is also making significant strides in helping businesses in many industries handle critical tasks, such as employee training.17 For example, the US continues to lead the world in the design and deployment of virtualised modelling and simulation (M&S) technologies for several industries, such as military and defence. These technological innovations have been used to support strategic operations and training in all facets of the military. It is estimated that unclassified open-source contracts for virtual and augmented simulation training for the US Army alone totalled $2.7 billion in 2019, increased to an estimated $3 billion in 2020, and is expected to rise to more than $19 billion by 20271. And it’s not just a hope and a dream, there are already significant ROI accomplishments for the technology. For example, Lockheed Martin Corp has been developing how-to manuals that include animations for assembling spacecraft components. This has reduced the time required to interpret assembly instructions by 95%, along with an 85% reduction in overall training time and a more than 40% boost in productivity2. The Need for Virtualisation On the surface these are significantly large investments. However, these expenditures pale in comparison to the traditional training costs as virtualised technologies do not require costs for travel, expensive munitions, fuel, or any other overhead costs typically associated with a standard training program. Furthermore, there are also reduced risks for soldiers and air personnel in training as they virtually use weapons, operate a variety of vehicles, or practice team, squad, and full unit tactics in a complete range of simulated environments with adaptable scenarios and landscapes. Virtualised technologies are still not created equal, though. This is important because today, many existing untethered immersive extended reality (XR) systems lack visual realism, the precise blending of the virtual and real world, scalability and flexibility required for truly immersive multi-user environments. This is primarily due to limited compute capability, battery capacity and very restrictive thermal envelopes of existing standalone XR devices such as HMD, tablets and smartphones and these challenges will persist in the foreseeable future.18 bmta.co.uk Where Virtualisation Makes a Difference These limitations also extend to immersive modelling and simulations environments for the training of employees requiring increasingly joint, coalition, distributed, complex, intense and specific environments to develop necessary training readiness. Optimum XR systems need to support ultra-realistic, high-fidelity visuals; a precise fusion of the virtual with the real world in a multi-user, multi-platform environment and flexibility of environment rehearsal in a variety of employment situations. However, existing immersive operational training environments are very siloed, too slow, too expensive, and not adaptable enough to prepare for modern-day manufacturing or design skillsets. Among the many reasons why this technology is successful, the cloud-native XR platform overcomes the limitations of existing untethered immersive systems. It provides an open, interoperable, scalable unified and shared XR infrastructure for ultra-realistic simulations in any industrial setting. It combines the best of gaming technologies/concepts with traditional simulator capabilities by leveraging cloud computing and 3D Artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver a ubiquitous, reconfigurable, on-demand and immersive training system for multi- user environments. The platform utilises server-class Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) on cloud/on-premise/ edge to achieve high-fidelity rendering of complex 3D content and real-time alignment and tracking of virtual models/scenes over real-world objects, and support multi-user multi- platform environments. Other technical breakthroughs include: Ultra-low latency high fidelity rendering: provides unparalleled realism of training by leveraging ultra-low latency remote rendering on cloud/on-premise in full fidelity and wirelessly streaming the solution to affordable commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices – HMD, Tablet and Desktop.19 CONTRIBUTE TO OUR NEXT NEWSLETTER We encourage our readers to send in thought leadership articles and opinion pieces on a wide range of technical, operational and commercial issues impacting any aspect of the UK measurement and testing industry. To provide the best possible coverage for you within the newsletter we ask that alongside the article that you provide a 50-100 word synopsis which we can use to highlight the article before publication via news feeds and the BMTA website. Feature articles are usually between a half A4 page and two A4 pages of text in length. In addition to this, we would ask that you provide supporting images, at print ready resolution, together with a headshot and short biography of the author. If you would like to contribute, please email Laura Vallis at editor@bmta.co.uk •High-precision 3D AI-based spatial mapping: uses high-fidelity remote spatial mapping with high fidelity 3D scene reconstruction, scene segmentation and 3D object recognition using 3D vision and deep learning-based AI with a precise fusion of the real and virtual worlds to create advanced visualisation and a sophisticated picture of battlespace environments. •Cloud-based agile development, deployment and operations (DevSecOps): uses Kubernetes for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI-CD) and auto- scaling in a modern private/public/edge/hybrid cloud ensuring resource optimisation and sharing. The average U.S. company spends over $1,000 on training per employee each year – costs that can significantly add up over time. Immersive mixed reality can help cut costs and reduce overall overhead expenses to preserve the bottom line over time, despite the obvious initial investment. Business owners and managers in virtually every industry with a manufacturing operation today are realising the importance of gaining a competitive advantage by implementing these cutting-edge technologies and practices. The innovative nature alone will help boost employee recruitment and retention. About The Author: Dijam Panigrahi is the co-founder and COO of GridRaster Inc., a leading provider of cloud- based AR/VR platforms that power compelling high-quality AR/VR experiences on mobile devices for enterprises. For more information, please visit www.gridraster.com. References 1: https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/NCO-Journal/ Archives/2020/July/The-Effectiveness-of-Virtual-Simulation-as-a- Training-Tool/ 2: https://www.scopear.com/lockheed-martin-embraces-ar-on-the- shop-floor/ bmta.co.ukNext >