A total of 86% of businesses questioned in the report said their spending intentions hadn't changed, and more than three-quarters said they were investing in new technology, up 8 percentage points from last year's survey.
The survey of 113 business leaders also revealed that 61% plan to hire an apprentice in the next 12 months, with 84% making the decision to develop future engineering skills.
Despite this, 72% believe that national support for training is insufficient, with 44% wanting more funding for vocational training and 39% wanting to see more upskilling.
“The past 12 months have been dominated by a confluence of challenges and global pressures beyond the industry's control, from supply chain disruptions and conflict in Europe and the Middle East to widespread political uncertainty and high inflation,” InComm Training managing director Gareth Jones said in a statement.
“Given all these pressures, we've been pleasantly surprised to see that in the face of rising prices, many companies are prioritizing closing the skills gap over cutting budgets.”
He continued: “In our view, this demonstrates our industry's strong desire to support the development of apprentices, address the urgent skills challenge and ensure that talent shortages, both now and in the future, do not prevent UK manufacturing from making the most of its recent revival.”
In 2023, the In-Comm Training Barometer reported that 28% of manufacturers have successfully reshored, but by 2024 that will drop to 18%, with almost half saying they don't have the necessary skills to make reshoring a reality.
Mr Jones said: “There is a big job to complete here – firstly, understanding what bringing jobs home looks like, and then how UK businesses need to be supported to make this happen.”
“This may be in terms of nearshoring your own supply chain, or tapping into customers around the world who are looking to move work out of China, India and other unstable parts of the world.
“The debate around skills and productivity is going to be crucial in determining whether companies will actually fight for jobs to reshore or whether it will actually be easier to win jobs in domestic supply chains.”
The full report can be downloaded here.
