Britain is home to one of the world's most innovative car industries A sector of innovation and progress has a major skills shortfall; we call on more to fill the gap Funny, isn’t it, how society treats different professions? Estate agents? Boo. Bankers? Well, fat cat brokers get a double boo, but your high-street branch manager was - and, in some cases, still is - a pillar of the community. Journalists and politicians, meanwhile, have seen a spectacular fall from grace in recent years. What about the car industry? First reactions are usually uncertain, thanks largely I think to its reputation of yesteryear in the UK, when workers were usually picketing, bloated car companies were profiteering and everyone knocked off for a half day on a Friday. Loveable rogue Arthur Daley and his sheepskin coat didn’t help, either, nor the variety of recent scandals that have tarred everyone with the same brush, regardless of the clear evidence of the industry’s record for innovation and progr