Six out of 10 engineering employers fear a growing shortage of engineers will threaten their business in the UK, research has found. A study by the Institution of Engineering and Technology underlines concerns that skills shortages could hold back the recovery in parts of the economy. 

Manufacturing output remains 8 per cent below its pre-recession peak but companies say the right skills are becoming harder to find. In the IET’s survey, 76 per  cent of employers reported problems with recruiting senior engineers with five to 10 years’ experience, up from 48 per cent in 2011. The difficulty of finding engineering managers, graduates, technicians and apprentices had also increased. “We feel it is holding our company back,” said Matt Wilson, chairman of Telecoms Cloud, a Liverpool-based telecom services company with a £4m turnover that has six unfilled vacancies including telephony engineers and software specialists. Mr Wilson said the company was having to turn work down because it could not find enough people, including a prospective contract for a London council that would probably go to a German company. Other work is being outsourced to Malaysia and Vietnam. He said his business partner had suggested moving to San Francisco, where there would be a better supply of skills, which he did not want to do but might have to consider in future if the situation did not improve. 

One route to improving the supply of engineers is to encourage more women to join the profession, but the IET study of 400 employers found that only 6 per cent of the workforce was female, barely changed in the past six years. Despite this, the survey found that 43 per cent of employers were not taking any specific action to improve workplace diversity. “They need to take urgent steps to improve recruitment and retention of women, for example by promoting flexible and part-time working, together with planned routes of progression that can accommodate career breaks,” said Nigel Fine, chief executive of the IET........

Questions

1. What effects might a shortage of engineers have on the UK economy and UK engineering businesses? 

2. Why are there so few female engineers compared to male engineers and what can the engineering sector do to encourage females to take up a career in engineering? 

3. How might an engineering firm that has a shortage of engineers attract overseas applicants? 

4. How might the engineering sector engage with schools, colleges and universities to influence the skills levels of graduates?