National Grid fears skills shortage

The negative perception of engineering careers could lead to a shortage of skilled workers capable of developing technology for future energy demands.

This is the implication in a new National Grid report, which shows that engineering is not deemed to be a desirable career by young people, parents and teachers.

The National Grid has responded by launching initiatives to reach out to students to encourage them to consider engineering jobs.

The group estimates that nearly 1,000 new roles in the field of power systems engineering will be needed by 2020 to meet increasing energy demands.

The leader of the report, Tony Moloney, manager of UK learning and development for National Grid, said he is confident these jobs can be grown within the UK population in time.

‘We’ve got five to eight years to do this,’ he added. ‘No one is pressing the panic button. We’re just taking action now because the changes we make today only start to take affect in five years. So that’s why we have to start banging the drum a bit.’