Work visa red tape makes a mockery of the government’s stated intentions to get to grips with the engineering skills shortage writes our anonymous blogger.
I am somewhat perplexed by the attitude of our government. Before you ask: yes this does seem to be a perpetual state of mind and no it doesn’t necessarily refer to just a single party. In this particular case the cause lies within the fact that for about 20 years we have been predicting a shortfall of engineers for the next 40. This should ring two specific alarm bells, the first because the situation exists and the second because the time period for the predicted shortfall isn’t actually getting any shorter.
Recently we have seen new initiatives from the government with regard to this problem which, you’d think, could only be a “good thing”. However I’m left wondering if its all merely a bit of flimflam to keep us quiet. It all looks good on the surface with predicted results in x years but why aren’t we doing something now, after all the problem exists in the present? What set me off down this path is the recent experiences of Perkins, the current squeeze of a member of my family.
Perkins is a bright young fellow who hails from across the pond. Having said that, he obviously saw the light early and came over here to study engineering where he has built a life for himself and (if you’ve met him) clearly found his second home. He was in the middle of taking a Masters when he decided that he wanted to go out into the big wide world to earn some money instead. It is here that the problem starts.
Getting through to an interview hasn’t been an issue at all, but getting sponsorship for a work visa has. As I understand it there are allocations of work visas based on income and also allocations for those coming over to be employed in strategic professions. Apparently a graduate engineering position does not qualify for either. Poor Perkins has, to my knowledge, had two companies eager to interview him for a vacancy and then dropped him due to them not being able to get the paperwork to – well – work. He has now just accepted a job back over in the “land of the free”, despite dearly wanting to be over here and Britain having a conspicuous deficit of young people in our sector.
This whole situation makes it difficult for me to reconcile the needs of industry and the rhetoric from on high of supporting engineering. Why aren’t we, as a country, actively enabling foreign nationals to work here within our profession? Its not a handout as they will be contributing to the economy whilst helping strengthen our technological base. They wont be “taking our jobs” as we are looking at a sustained shortfall of people needed to fulfil the long term projected demand. In this case there can’t even be any worry regarding levels of education as his qualifications were earned over here.
I’m left wondering why the government declaration about providing funding to tackle the need for engineers over a number of years was left unchallenged while this very clear resource remains untapped. Was it a diversionary tactic or have they just not considered any alternatives? I’d also like to know what the Institutes and lobbying groups are doing about this. Is there anyone who is actually pushing our causes and needs in Westminster? Sometimes the solution isn’t simply to throw money at something but rather to be more clever with the solutions you have available. To assess all your options and select the most appropriate rather than most obvious or the most popular. Perhaps if there was an engineer heading the government they might actually realise that?
Everything you describe is just the normal working of a free market. I’m suspicious of any definition of the word “need” that isn’t a synonym for “is prepared to pay for”
… that said I have just had a quick look at the visa application process; it does appear to be somewhat Byzantine 🙂
Isn’t excluding a large number of people for reasons other than their ability to deliver actually the opposite of a free market?
“Why aren’t we, as a country, actively enabling foreign nationals to work here within our profession?”
Because there is no shortage of engineering graduates in this country, it’s all a myth. Employers perpetuate this myth so that they always have a large pool of potential engineers to select from.
Many new graduates struggle to secure their first post as they are part of this large pool. older engineers can find difficulty getting work if there experience does not exactly match the needs of the employer. Agencies make things worse as they very often only want to recruit engineers who have done exactly the same job previously.
A former colleague of mine, UK born and the son of an immigrant worker, is currently struggling to find work as an engineer despite having an engineering degree, previous experience and a wealth of practical knowledge.
Apprenticeships are the solution for many employers and the new apprenticeship levy supports this. The government wants employers to use this route to train new staff.
Perhaps the government understand the situation I am describing and is taking a sensible approach.
“Free market?” the only people and groups who actually believe that the free market is the root to all goodness, and the encouragement of efficiency, advance, and the ascent of Capitalism (and for that matter market forces and Democracy) are those who have managed to insulate themselves almost completely from it! Those who believe the product or service they offer is so vital to the rest of us that they alone are fit to and should have the monopoly to provide it! The sham professions.
There isn’t a shortage of Engineers.
Just companies that don’t invest in their staff
I don’t believe there is a shortage of engineers. If there was, every engineering student would be pursued by a posse of recruitment managers waving lucrative contracts and extolling the virtues of their companies. Instead, new graduates travel the length and breadth of the country, attending countless interviews and assessment centres in the hope that somebody will employ them. There is however, a shortage of engineers that can perform a specific role, as most employers want to hire engineers that can ‘hit the ground running’, because they are unwilling to train anyone into a role.
Agree with all the above – coupled with the observation that many bright engineers are savvy enough to realize they can be much better remunerated if they joined the banking professions etc. ( the two brightest colleagues when I was at CIT used their masters degree to join a well known merchant bank )
PS : though to be fair – losing Mr.Perkins does seem rather an unnecessary loss.
I do not wish in any way to distress or disappoint those coming-up to graduation/completing their training in Engineering, but some 55 years ago between the seven members of our final year Class at St Andrews, the recruitment folk (mostly Engineers) offered about 50 jobs! What has altered? Deliberate ‘politically motivated’ attempts to reduce the role of manufacture throughout our economy (aimed at reducing the potential support for the Left?) and the growth of ‘clerks’ in high places? (particularly HR?) There are other reasons too. Answers, perhaps in a hacked e-mail, or as fake news? If that is good enough for the democratically elected leader of the most powerful nation on earth, its fine by me!
Just remind me: which Party , aided and abetted by far too many accountants (clerks) who thought it was too expensive to train staff, removed apprenticeship and periods of introduction to the work-place for graduates: the same which apparently has had a change of heart by wishing industries to now return to an excellent system, once again. That is those left?
Add the return to State ownership of many of those sections of the seed corn and family silver sold off at bargain basement prices, (railways, buses, ) and the full extent of the economic lunacy perpetrated on our Nation is starting, like so many headless chickens, to come home to roost!