A shortage of skilled engineers is the biggest single factor threatening our industry, says NT CADCAM’s MD Chris Horn.
On the surface, there are plenty of statistics to tell us the UK economy recovery is moving in the right direction.
But behind the stats, there is a worrying discrepancy between the supply and demand for a skilled UK engineering workforce. The UK currently needs 107,000 engineers a year but in 2014 only 82,000 were trained[i]. Engineering and skilled engineers make a vital and valued contribution to the UK economy (27.1% of the UK’s total GDP in 2014) but failing to meet our future engineering workforce requirements could have dire consequences.
The coalition government spared science and research investment from the tsunami of public spending cuts. It has provided an extra £400million for university science departments, in the 2015 Budget it committed £60m to six Midlands universities to lead the Energy Research Accelerator and has encouraged 75,000 more students into STEM apprenticeships through its Your Life campaign.
But to many industry commentators, there is plenty more that still needs to be done. A recent YouGov poll found that 85% of those questioned wanted the next UK government to promote a stronger UK manufacturing base. So what needs to happen to ensure engineering employers have the skilled workforce to achieve real economic growth?
NT CADCAM’s MD, Chris Horn, says a culture change in how we view a career in engineering and design must go hand-in-hand with increased support for STEM education.
“The biggest challenge facing the engineering sector is people,” he says. “We have hundreds of jobs in this industry but no one to fill them. Six out of 10 engineering employers fear a shortage of engineers will threaten their business[ii]. The issue we have as a nation is how do we make a career in engineering and design an appealing prospect? In the UK, an engineer is still regarded very much as a manual role, someone who will fix your washing machine whereas in Europe engineers are respected in the same bracket as lawyers and doctors. The qualifications are as hard and as long as those of an accountant or lawyer – yet becoming an engineer in the UK does not hold the same prestige or kudos and the courses are therefore not as popular.
“We’ve had the outdated headlines that ‘UK manufacturing is down the pan’ because there are no jobs in it. But right now that couldn’t be more wrong. In 2014, the UK car manufacturing market was at a seven year high, many of our medical customers are starting to onshore manufacturing again while we are seeing growth in the green energy sector. It is success stories like this which, according to IMF figures, made the UK the fastest growing “advanced economy” last year. But the sector cannot grow if we do not have the skilled workforce.
“Just this month I met with two of our customers in the medical industry, one is already running 25 SOLIDWORKS licences and is looking for a further 12 new people to join them. Another has 50 licenses and is looking to recruit a further 50 people. We need to make engineering attractive as a subject to study, create awareness of what professional engineers actually do and how that links to design and make it a career to aspire to.”
The Conservative party has a number of proposals:
• Reforming the education system for the next generation of scientists and engineers. Aim to raise the number of A Level maths and physics students by 50% by 2017 and to double the number of undergraduate degrees taken by women in engineering and technology by 2030. Will train 17,500 more maths and physics teachers.
• Committed £5.9 billion of capital to support scientific distinction up to 2021
• Committed £800million to new research facilities including £95m to take the lead in the next European mission to Mars.
• £150m to the UK Innovation Investment Fund
• Financial support to part time engineering students, introducing loans up to £10K for young people who want to undertake postgraduate study.
Read the full response from here: Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron at CaSE
