Half of new engineering recruits lack required skills

According to the report from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), over two thirds (71 per cent) of the engineering workforce experiencing internal skills gaps say it is down to missing engineering or technical skills.

Nearly all (96 per cent) employers who had identified a skills shortage said that it impacts their business in some way, the most common of those being around recruitment.

Difficulties recruiting (50 per cent) or making recruitment timelines longer (47 per cent) were identified as common results. Less than half (45 per cent) of companies who see a skills shortage within young people provide additional training for apprentices and graduates, while 25 per cent simply recruit fewer apprentices and graduates as a result.

Lack of recruitment from a diverse talent pool may also be fuelling the problem, the report found — only a third of businesses were shown to be taking action to improve workforce diversity across gender (33 per cent) or ethnicity (30 per cent).