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Skills gap threatens UK's industrial strategy, say businesses


The UK has a "skills problem" that threatens to undermine the UK's industrial strategy, a new study has found.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) surveyed 800 UK employers of engineering and technology staff and found that 55% of those businesses "have experienced a lack of skills in the external market" and cite "the shortage of engineering and technical skills at a professional level as a key challenge".

The IET's study also found that 61% of those businesses "consider the recruitment of engineering and technical staff with the right skills as a barrier to achieving business objectives over the next three years".

According to the IET’s skills and demand in industry report 2017, 75% of the respondents said they believe that "tackling the skills problem is fundamental to making the government’s industrial strategy viable". The government set out its industrial strategy last month. It is aimed at boosting UK productivity and includes the creation of so-called 'sector deals' for some industries, including life sciences.

One of the IET's main recommendations in its report was for the UK government to ensure that non-UK workers "who have the skills needed by engineering businesses" can stay in the UK "as Brexit comes into effect". It also urged the government to work "more closely with educators and industry on a long-term plan" for skills.

The IET also called on employers to do more to attract people from diverse backgrounds into engineering.

Employment law expert Laura Starrett of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "In order to successfully navigate the path ahead, the need to access talent from a wider pool poses an immediate challenge and significant opportunity. In particular, the IET study noted that there are big challenges in respect of under-representation of females with just over one in ten (11%) of the UK engineering and technical workforce being female and only 15% of the companies surveyed driving forward initiatives to attract and retain women in engineering technical roles." 

"Further, the majority (87%) of companies surveyed do not have any LGBT/BAME diversity initiatives in place. Manufacturers that are proactive in developing strategies which recruit, retain and advance individuals from diverse backgrounds will have better access to a wider range of skills and experience which in turn should enable them to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in an increasingly challenging marketplace," she said.

The IET said: "What is worrying in this year’s findings is the enduring lack of people with skills to fill the jobs that employers are creating and need to fill. It is a problem which extends across employers of engineers and technicians. The ongoing inability for employers to find younger people with the right skills, knowledge and critically, attitude to work is one we cannot allow to continue if we are to have a healthy engineering profession in the future."

"Ultimately, the government’s industrial strategy to boost UK productivity will not succeed if we do not resolve these skills challenges," it said.

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