Start off your year right with DPA’s January 2026 issue – out now!

It’s no secret that apprenticeship numbers have fallen significantly over the past decade. So, when the Government announced a £725m overhaul of the apprenticeships and skills system at the end of 2025, the sector understandably pricked up its ears. The headline – 50,000 more apprenticeships over the next three years – does sound quite promising. Editor Sophia Bell explores further in this month's column (p. 4).

Celebrating its 28th anniversary this year, Southern Manufacturing & Electronics, the UK's premier annual trade fair, will bring over 500 exhibitors and 10,000 visitors together for three days of design, engineering and manufacturing insight. The event will connect ideas with real-world capability, helping teams overcome development bottlenecks and discover advanced materials, processes and technologies across the mechanical and electronic sectors. Register and find out more in our cover story (p. 6).

Finally, Australian sensors have helped to level up autonomous moon landers. "Our LUNA sensor aims to give lunar landers and rovers hyper-accurate ‘laser vision’ to see their own speed and position in the darkness of space, potentially making crashes a thing of the past and paving the way for safe, autonomous exploration," according to manufacturer Advanced Navigation (p. 14)

Other key features include:
• Addressing the risk of electrification: A smarter energy strategy (p. 18)
• Industrial intelligence made easy: OT meets IT (p. 8)
• How digital automation can enhance efficiency in control cabinet manufacturing (p. 24)
• Video of the Month:  Demystifying access control & start-up protection (p. 29)
• How IO-Link is finally making legacy digitisation work (p. 10)
• Motor load monitoring: Modern protection for modern machines (p. 20)
• Designing plastic electronic enclosures: A guide for design engineers (p. 26)

Read the full issue here.