Katy O’Keeffe, Strategy Director at Europlaz Technologies, challenges the ‘talent shortage’ narrative and explains why the sector needs to update its image.
europlaz
After over 15 years in the plastics and manufacturing sector, you gain a certain perspective on which industry challenges are genuinely new, and which ones recycle themselves with a fresh label. With fewer skilled workers, ageing teams and too few young people entering engineering, the ‘talent shortage’ story has become all too familiar.
However, after mentoring early-career colleagues and observing the shifting expectations across generations, I’ve become convinced that we’re not short of talent at all. We’re short of modernity. I sit in that midcareer sweet spot: experienced enough to understand the legacy systems and cultures that shaped this industry, yet close enough to younger professionals to see what they value and what they reject. And one thing is clear – young people are not avoiding manufacturing. They simply don’t see themselves reflected in the image we project.
In short, our external narrative is outdated. The image of manufacturing and the way we communicate this to the outside world is rarely compelling. Visuals still tend to focus on machinery and hard, dirty environments instead of the people and their expertise. To thrive in manufacturing, you need a surprising amount of creativity and EQ. We need to update how we tell our story. Where else can you:
• Develop medical devices that save lives?
• Create products used by millions every day?
• Solve real-world engineering problems in real time?
Culture is the real frontier. Manufacturing can’t offer working from home, which can make attracting staff difficult. However, when younger colleagues describe what they want in a workplace, they rarely mention salary first. Instead, they speak about clear development opportunities, collaborative working and the freedom to try new approaches.
Yet in many businesses, cultural modernisation lags behind technological modernisation. Even companies with advanced equipment can still operate with bureaucracy and outdated expectations around flexibility and communication. Recent commentary across the sector has touched on this tension, particularly around adopting new technologies, including AI, where hesitation can lose competitive advantage. Younger professionals notice this gap immediately. To attract and retain talent, we must evolve alongside what we make.
I remember being one of the only women in meetings early in my career. Fast-forward 20 years, and things have improved, but the reality is still uncomfortable. Women remain significantly underrepresented in engineering, operations and leadership roles across plastics and manufacturing. It’s not just a moral issue; it’s a strategic one.
Homogeneous leadership leads to homogeneous thinking. And homogeneous thinking leads to slow, incremental, comfortable decisions, precisely the opposite of what this sector needs in the next decade. Younger women entering the industry today can thrive, but only if they can see a future version of themselves in the organisation. Too often, they can’t.
This industry has weathered multiple shocks, economic turbulence, supply chain disruption and regulatory shifts, but the next decade will demand even more agility. Sustainability, digitisation, energy efficiency and automation aren’t abstract priorities; they’re already shaping the competitive landscape. Younger generations want to be part of solving these challenges. They’re motivated by the idea of contributing to meaningful change, but they want to join organisations willing to modernise not only their equipment, but their mindset.
The question isn’t, “how do we make young people interested in plastics?”, but rather, “how do we evolve so that the industry reflects their aspirations and values?” If we package ourselves properly, we can stop being ‘old-fashioned manufacturing’ and start being one of the most future-relevant career paths that offer real long-term potential.