It’s “skills week” on The Engineer – which means that all week (29th Oct – 2nd November) we will be covering the perennially thorny issue of – you guessed it – engineering skills.
As regular readers will be aware the so-called skills shortage remains a major issue for industry. Engineering UK’s most recent annual report (which is perhaps the most referred to bellwether on the topic) estimates that the UK requires 124000 new engineers and technicians every year, and faces an annual shortfall of 59,000.
And although the cause, scale and nature of the problem is often a source of heated debate, few would disagree with the assertion that UK industry – for whatever reason – is struggling to find the skills it needs to compete and evolve.
As we’ve frequently written, addressing this is far from straightforward. The skills problem is a deeply complex issue, driven by a variety of factors, which needs to be addressed on a number of different fronts.
Perhaps the most talked about area of this is the need to develop a pipeline of future engineers by changing the way that we talk to young people about science and engineering.
There’s no doubt that this is enormously important for the UK’s longer-term economic prosperity, but whilst we will touch on STEM this week, it’s such a nuanced and complex issue in its own right that we’re going to save a detailed discussion on this for a later “themed week.”
Instead, this week the primary focus is on the here and now: the measures that engineering firms can take today to make sure they’ve got the talent they need to thrive, and the actions individuals can take to make the most of their skills and tap into the training and knowledge that will help them advance their careers at a time of profound technological change.
Amongst the specific issues under the microscope this week, we’ll be looking at how we crack that old industry bugbear of graduates not being “factory-ready”; we’ll look at some of the emerging technology areas that are driving new skills requirements; we’ll be talking to industry leaders and factory-floor engineers about their own experiences; and we’ll be examining the skills implications of that ever-present elephant in the room: Brexit.
Our partner for this week’s festivities is Frazer-Nash Consultancy, an engineering firm that works with organisations of all shapes and sizes across almost every area of industry and which therefore has unique and broad perspective on some of the skills challenges industry faces. We’ll be hearing from some of the firm’s top engineers over the course of the week.
As always we welcome your comments on what is always an emotive issue, and hope that our coverage over the course of next few days will help play a role – however small – in helping to move forward thinking on this critical issue.
I just wonder (suggest?) that the subject of low performing (primarily in terms of productivity growth) businesses will be covered in this week. This straddles economics – but is related to this subject in that the lack of skilled engineers (and other non engineering but skilled functions such as marketing) in manufacturing businesses is partially due to low performance (some say Zombie) businesses. The idea being that whilst engineers are employed in these organisations, they can effectively retain engineers who with the same skills may be better employed in newer, more dynamic organisations, who may ultimately help solve our productivity issues.
Govt (and BoE) policies such as low interest rates and Qualitative Easing or even providing grants for training may actually continue rather than resolve this hidden, but important situation. It would be good to have some input from economists to explore this.
This whole issue is dear to my heart. Here in Leeds we have the problem writ large. We have the 3rd largest manufacturing sector in the country by local authority area but because we do not have a major well know large manufacturing/engineering employer in the city, most people you would ask in the city think there is hardly any manufacturing here. Our current solutions are to open UTC Leeds in 2016 https://www.utcleeds.com/ and this year a group of local manufacturing companies have held the Leeds Manufacturing Festival https://leedsmanufacturingfestival.co.uk/ to reach out to the youngsters of Leeds through the schools. Its our sectors problem and we need to proactively work on it.
I am not surprised there is a skills shortage, there are fewer and fewer large multinational companies, these were the talent pools of the past. Kids left school, some not too academically ‘bright’ but were then trained in apprenticeships etc. and became the foundation of the last society. These days kids have little hope, especially the ones who do not gain +10 A star results, schools are fixated on exam results not seemingly education and thereby hangs another issue. I didn’t envy the brighter kids at my school, I was quite envious of their talents but it did not stop me striving to get myself a decent job eventually, you might say the culture was different then. How do we get that culture back? I am afraid the genie may well be out of the bottle on that one, I don’t blame the internet, I blame the parents who allow good kids to be brainwashed by computer gaming and then wonder why they don’t want to get out and experience real life. God help them when Mum and Dad are gone and suddenly they have to stand on their own feet.
“Proper” apprenticeships, sandwich courses at universities (or polytechnics), more focus on vocational training and less on meaningless degrees, reduced/free further education where “proper” degrees are being offered, more support from manufacturers to train people from this country rather than bring in so-called “already trained and qualified” engineers from overseas (thereby placing the emphasis and costs on other countries rather than accepting them in this country) …… oh, yes, I forget, we used to do all of the above only a few years ago and threw it all out of the window because those in government (and in industry) thought they needed to change it all …. but I forget why?!
I’m Exeter College’s Technology Centre lead for university level learning and I despair at some of the policies that are now being applied to higher Vocational learning. My students are now only allowed one submission for their assignments and they’re not meant to show me the drafts before they submit for any ‘feedback’ their submission may require. In addition, they don’t pass they’ll have to wait to the end of the year to be given another attempt to pass – and while they’re waiting they won’t be afforded any opportunity to attempt the Merit or the Distinction criteria! I can see why such policies might be in place for traditional academic study because there is a need to assess the students true academic potential given minimal help, but in Vocational learning we do industry a great dis-service if we don’t afford our precious students every opportunity to at least gain a pass in the subjects and inspire them to try for the higher grades. There is also a restriction on using all the very powerful and freely available tools on-line to solve complex problems: I particularly like Desmos, the engineering toolbox and Multisim to enhance student learning and their problem solving abilities, but there seems to be an attitude from the traditional Academics that this will make it too easy for the students! – no wonder there’s a skill shortage when these ridiculous, unhelpful and demotivating policies are in place at the centres for Vocational learning.