The longer you sideline skills in high-performance electronics, the bigger the skills gap grows. The larger the gap, the greater the cost to your business and the harder it becomes to address.
Imagine losing a million-pound contract because your team lacks the specialised electronics skills needed to meet industry standards. Or watching production costs soar as rework rates climb to 30%. These aren’t hypothetical scenarios—they’re the reality many electronics manufacturers face today.
There’s no doubt that there’s a skills gap across aerospace, motorsport and defence electronics.
Marq-One has seen it… and we’re doing something about it, because we know your business can’t risk losing electronics skills.
Read on to see how our industry-leading IPC electronics training is serving the industry and strengthening businesses today. Marq-One’s Managing Director, Mark Yearby, explains why a training partner—not just a provider—is what you need to future-proof your business and protect your work.
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The problem: High-performance sectors facing electronics skills gap
If you’re working in high-performance sectors like aerospace, motorsport or defence, you’ll know the critical importance of high-performance electronics. You must meet uncompromising safety and performance standards for products, ready for use in high-stakes, hostile environments. With significant investments of time and money made, you need to deliver value and excellence throughout – we understand the challenges you face.
But across our industry, the growing skills and training gap is a serious challenge. It’s not even crept up on us; it’s been there for a while now. As a result, businesses are finding it harder and harder to recruit engineers with the knowledge and skills you once took for granted.
Impact of the electronics skills and training gap
‘Where is everybody?’
You’ll be asking the same question as many others in the electronics industry. Finding experienced and qualified electrical engineers is hard. For Marq-One we see this as three key challenges:
Electronics skills gap: Basic awareness
Foundational knowledge is lacking about component types, orientation and function, at a time when new automation processes will only increase the need for electronics expertise. We think of this like the basic language of electronics engineering—the industry is becoming less fluent, leading to inefficiency and reduced effectiveness. This gap is particularly concerning as we see complex technologies evolving rapidly in aerospace and defence applications.
Electronics skills gap: Lack of practical skills
The ‘engine room’ of our industry is being hindered by a large-scale drop in soldering skills, particularly in through-hole and surface mount technologies.
We’re also seeing a concerning lack of hands-on knowledge in critical areas like Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) prevention and Foreign Object Debris (FOD) control. These practical skills are the foundation of reliable electronics manufacturing, yet fewer members of the workforce have sufficient experience with these crucial engineering practices.
Electronics skills gap: Lack of knowledge of industry training standards
At a strategic level, knowledge of UK IPC electronics training standards, compliance and certification has diminished. This extends to other critical standards across the global industry, including ANSI, SAE, and US Military Specification (MIL-SPEC). Without expertise in these standards, UK manufacturers risk falling behind international competitors and losing their standing in the global market.
The electronics skills gap and your business
Day-to-day, consider what the skills gap means for you and your business.
Have you considered the impact of these?
Increased costs
When efficiency and competency are affected by falling levels of knowledge and practical skill, you’ll see an increased need to rework and repair, along with increased scrap and wastage.
The problem is inevitable with a skills gap, but avoidable with the right training partner.
Reduced customer confidence
Your standing in the electronics industry relies on your position as an expert service provider. If your levels fall, the reputational knock makes winning and retaining customers harder. Businesses that keep the standard will stay ahead.
Low employee stability
Competence and career progression opportunities increase staff morale. If organisational knowledge (and your customer base) declines, you’ll see higher turnover and more difficulty in retention and recruiting. The ‘good ones’ are in demand and will go where the work, opportunity and higher return are for them.
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If you’re nodding vigorously at all of this, there is good news.
Marq-One is working hard to fix these issues. We look beyond the skills gap and work in partnership with businesses who are investing in IPC training and workforce development strategies now. We work with businesses who are interested in future-proofing their businesses.
Think about it. If a skills gap exists in the electronics industry, more than ever, the right training can offer you a big opportunity for you to differentiate and stand out from the crowd.
Looking beyond the electronics skills gap
Many of you attended the Make UK Defence event hosted by Marq-One’s at our training centre at Eliot Park Innovation Centre, Nuneaton. Here, Mark spoke to industry leaders about the skills gap, pointing to the solution in event’s tagline, ‘Beyond the Gap: Elevating Skills in Defence.’
Training is key, and Marq-One is making a big difference across defence, aerospace and motorsport. We’re looking beyond the problem, strengthening the industry with best-in-class electronics training, consultancy, and partnerships. We can make the difference in your work too.
Electronics Training Partnerships: Your answer
We care deeply about the success of the UK electronics industry, specifically the high-performance sector covering aerospace, motorsport and defence.
Why are we so confident we can help you?
We’ve written about our role in the electronics industry as training partners, not just providers. At our dedicated training facilities in Eliot Park Innovation Centre, our expert team of electronics experts offer:
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- Customised learning pathways: We develop training programmes that take your team from week 1 to 18 months in service, aligned with recognised standards and qualifications
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- Comprehensive IPC standards training: Including IPC-A-610, J-STD-001, and other critical industry standards
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- Bespoke training options: Tailored to your specific manufacturing challenges and product requirements
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- Experienced instructors: Time-served electronics engineers with decades of hands-on experience across multiple high-performance sectors
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Our strategic partners are growing because we take time to understand their specific challenges and develop solutions that work for them—because one size definitely does not fit all!
Bridging the electronics skills gap: Partnership in practice
Successful electronics businesses are tackling this skills gap head-on, using strategic partners like us for IPC training, consultancy and structured, long-term workforce development.
There’s lots of noise made by training providers in our industry; they’re not all the same. It’s important to see what partnering with Marq-One looks like in practice.
Want to see what makes our approach different? You’re always welcome to visit our training centre in Nuneaton and try your hand at soldering—both through-hole and surface mount technologies—with expert guidance from our instructors.
If skills and training are the immediate challenges facing your work in electronics:
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- Book a no-obligation consultation with our team
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- Arrange a visit to our training facility
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- Discover how a strategic training partnership can transform your workforce
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The focus of a good partnership should never end with what you don’t know. It’s always about bridging the gap and looking beyond the problem to help you realise the potential of your work and business.
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Marq-One grew from our seeing what the industry needed and seizing the opportunity. Excellence in practice always creates opportunity, and we continually adapt to the changing needs in our industry.
If skills and training are the immediate challenges facing your work in electronics, get in touch.
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