Comment by BVAA CEO Rob Bartlett

RAAC and Ruin?

One of the joys of my job has been observing the career paths and development of people, particularly the ones I met relatively early in their career, and who have progressed significantly in the meantime.  They’ve gone on to make their mark in the panoply of talent that we have in the valve industry. 

However, through my recent attendances at exhibitions, numerous interactions plus of course the now ubiquitous social media, it’s become clear that more and more of our industry’s most senior engineers are stepping back, cutting their hours, or retiring completely.  

As is evident from the current recruitment merry-go-round, we as a nation and as an industry have not properly prepared to back-fill this exodus.  Why do we never learn?  

Take the current ‘RAAC’ concrete debacle for example.  My school’s disco in the 1970s was the snappily-titled ‘Hi-Alumina’.  I initially thought this was something to do with fancy lighting.  I soon learned ‘High Alumina’ was the name of the concrete used in our crumbling, partially-ruined school, and the disco’s name was the inspiration of some joker in the staffroom! 

It took years to buttress every corner of my school with traditional, tried-and-tested, brick.  

Decades later, we now have the same situation with RAAC in public buildings, and either in the absence of experience and wisdom - or perhaps ignoring it - people have made the wrong decisions.

Winston Churchill was apt to point out that he could confidently forecast future developments because he’d studied history.  I believe there’s something in that, but I also believe it was significant that he’d been brought up from a very young age in the presence of elder statesmen, who’d seen it all before and freely shared their experiences. 

The knowledge-gap we’re about to experience, due to our Sages taking their well-earned rest, is compounded by decades of offshoring manufacturing, and what was effectively a 20-year hiatus in traditional apprenticeships.  We didn’t lay down a robust foundation. 

We urgently need to be training our next generation.  As we build them up, we need to ensure they’re equipped to avoid mistakes and learning all they possibly can from their Sages before they amble off into the sunset. 

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Published: 2nd October 2023