Turning industry voices into action during GLAD2025

Matt Barber, director of Membership, at the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association, explains why, during GLAD2025, LEEA is placing the emphasis on turning industry voices into action on skills and recruitment and driving awareness of the sector’s importance.

The lifting sector is a classic example of an essential and commonplace industry that is hidden, ignored or goes unrecognised. But imagine how difficult or near impossible life would be without it?

Lifting takes place everywhere. It has a key role in the supply chains of industries as diverse as automotive, aeronautical, construction, defence, entertainment, green infrastructure, logistics, manufacturing, marine and shipping, medical facilities military, oil and gas, ports – the list goes on and on.

In any of these sectors, if you want your supply chain to run smoothly and not grind to a halt, you need to pay attention to lifting, which encompasses a broad list of roles: from crane operators, to lifting inspectors, from lifting equipment designers to sales people, from health and safety specialists to trainers.

We want to attract the next generation of recruits to these key roles that makes things happen throughout supply chains, because the lifting industry needs to constantly replenish with new talent and new experts. So, during Global Lifting Awareness Day (GLAD), LEEA will be focussing on the skills gaps, shortages and the immediate recruitment needs of the industry globally to drive awareness of the importance of our industry.

This year, GLAD’s theme of ‘Lifting Careers, Building Futures’ seeks to inspire the next generation to explore careers in lifting and aims to provide practical solutions to help businesses identify, develop, and retain top talent.

As part of LEEA’s commitment to drive positive change in the Lifting Industry, it has conducted an international survey to understand skills gaps, recruitment challenges and training needs. Our response will be shared on 12 June (the day of GLAD2025), aiming to inspire change and support growth. Together with LEEA’s CEO, Dr Ross Moloney, I will be hosting a webinar to launch a special report that highlights the most pressing issues related to skills shortages, skills gaps and recruitment across the lifting sector. This report will provide valuable insights into the challenges facing businesses today and actionable strategies to ensure a sustainable and skilled workforce for the future.

Recruiting new talent

With so many opportunities available to today’s career seekers, we are competing for their interest with many other ‘hidden sectors’ as well as those perceived attention grabbers – such as the creative sector. They need to know about lifting’s career path opportunities when they are deciding what they want to do with their lives and how they wish to build their careers.

This is why it’s so important to give pupils at schools and colleges, as well as their teachers, meaningful exposure to the dynamic and global lifting industry. Inspirational engineering-focused engagement activities can help to ensure young people experience real life applications of engineering and are well-informed about the many doors they can open through their subject choices.

This was the premise behind LEEA’s Think Lifting, schools’ engagement programme. It can create further demand for the Lifting Technician apprenticeship, which will act as a pathway to channel new skilled recruits into our sector or will encourage students to pursue engineering at university. They can then turn to LEEA for continuous professional development as well as training through its range of courses designed to create expertise.

Lifting careers, building futures

In our specialised, safety critical industry, it is of paramount importance that we provide a recognised occupation and career progression pathway that not only encourages newcomers but will also upskill existing personnel to develop their knowledge, skills and professional behaviours.

The skills shortage in our industry is a challenge that we must address together. GLAD 2025 will provide a platform for businesses, educators, and job seekers to come together, share solutions, and shape the future of lifting. It’s time to lift careers and build futures.

So, join LEEA as we launch our state of the Lifting Industry Report as part of Global Lifting: register for the ‘GLAD 2025 Insights: Turning Industry Voices into Action’ webinar on Global Lifting Awareness Day, 12 June 2025.