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Railway sector 'not attractive enough' for young engineers

What is interesting here is the tendency for ‘specialization aversion’. Perhaps this can be seen as a consequence of the introduction of a flexible labour market (including outsourcing/contract work) and portfolio careers over the last decade or so. I guess when businesses and investors take the short term view, then so do employees – who will often be looking towards their next job (hence generic qualifications being sought, rather than knuckling down to a specific organisation’s special skills needs). When employers seem to want to often only employ full rounded and skilled workers ‘off the shelf’ is it a surprise that people will choose generic skills over specialised ones. Employers often are not prepared to actually accept the cost of specialist training. Related to this maybe this trend is also a consequence of there being too many university graduates who then feel ‘entitled’ to instantly get a well paid and interesting job. A long term commitment by employers to people who are not really suited to a university/academic type engineering education (at least at 18), but who are still technically minded, may result in a growth of specialists who will reciprocate the commitment to their employers.

27 Apr 2012

2:03 pm