LONG before the start of the recession there were plenty of people who would tell you that North-East engineering and manufacturing was dead, or beyond resuscitation.

Today’s Jobs&Business unashamedly sticks up two fingers to anybody who scoffed at the notion that youngsters should be training for a manufacturing career in the 21st century .

We could have filled this week’s supplement solely with good news from an industry which has been repeatedly written-off, neglected and miss-managed.

There are stories about investment in new equipment; factory expansions; big orders and money for training. And there are stories about new jobs – many of them skilled jobs that pay a decent salary.

Jobs are the most important commodity that any manufacturer can produce. The industry is a big multiplier of work because it depends upon support services such as raw materials, transport and sales. It creates jobs in other industries.

In addition, manufacturing remains a vital source of innovation, research and development, and helps to drive exports and growth.

It would be misleading to claim that everything is rosy and we continue to report job losses as well as factory closures. Nor would we be so foolish as to suggest that the industry will employ the same number of workers that were supported by the powerhouse North-East manufacturers of the last century. But there are signs of optimism which deserve celebration.

Tomorrow (THURSDAY), hundreds of buyers from across the UK and Europe will come to Newton Aycliffe where the annual Oktoberfest expo will showcase the best of North-East manufacturing and engineering.

The event, which began in 2008, has weathered the worst of the recession to become a forum where new contacts made that lead to new deals. More than 1,500 businesses and delegates are expected to attend this year’s event which has become a bellwether for the sector.

One ominous dark cloud on the horizon is the shortage of engineering talent emerging from schools, colleges and universities. The announcement this week that some of the region’s leading manufacturers have been given a pledge of government match-funding to support skills programmes is welcome, but it is a drop in the ocean. Unless the education sector and industry works together to identify where the gaps are and build training courses around what companies need then the recovery we are seeing will soon fade away.

Follow me on Twitter @bizecho