Mind the gap

The government has marked engineering as one of the key industries capable of pulling the country out of recession. But according to a recent report by EngineeringUK, the sector needs in excess of two million new engineers over the next 10 years in order to achieve sustainable growth.

Higher education (HE) will be vital to this but there are concerns that the sector is not plugging the skills gap fast enough. While last year saw a five per cent increase in the number of engineering graduates, this is nowhere near the numbers needed to ensure the UK makes the most of its potential in this area.

’We know that employers are finding it hard to recruit the right calibre of candidates,’ said Philip Whiteman, chief executive of sector skills council Semta. ’Our data shows that around 96,300 engineers, scientists and technologists will need to be recruited between now and 2016… currently, more than half of technicians in the workforce have qualifications below world-class standards.’