In recent months, the manufacturing industry has picked up hugely with experts now predicting that a higher number of British-made cars than originally forecast will be sold in the present quarter. This, in turn, has boosted the economy and rapidly sped up the UK’s financial recovery.
However, leading entrepreneur Sir James Dyson believes that this period of good fortune may soon come to an end thanks to what he calls a “shortage of engineers.” According to him, this factor is the “biggest barrier” to growth at his company, and he claims that he has the capacity to take on a further 2,000 workers if only he could find them.
Dyson, the firm behind one of the world’s most popular vacuum cleaners, is already planning to hire a total of 650 engineers later this year; 300 of which will be based at the company’s plant in Malmesbury with the remaining 350 to be split between Dyson’s two Asian plants. Yet Sir James believes that the international hiring process will prove to be much more successful than the UK recruitment drive.
He says; “We’ll get all the workers we need in Singapore and Malaysia, but we have to be realistic in Britain.
“If we can get 300 we’ll be doing well – we would recruit 2,000 if we could!
“We have got the technology and the ideas; we just need the people.”
Sir James largely placed the blame for this engineering shortage on the shoulders of the government, claiming that it has failed to understand the need for talented engineers to fuel growth. He believes that the education system requires reform to reflect the rapidly changing exports market, first and foremost by recognising design and technology as a scientific subject at A-level alongside chemistry, maths and physics.
This, he believes, would attract more young people towards careers in engineering and allow Britain’s manufacturing industry to thrive.
However, the problem does not solely lie with the government, as the percentage of students from outside the UK in post-graduate engineering courses shows. More than 80 per cent of these students are from countries not part of the European Union, and so many return to their home countries due to immigration laws after their studies end rather than forging careers for themselves in the UK.
Sir James continues; “Britain produces 12,000 engineering graduates a year – and there are currently 54,000 vacancies.
“It’s predicted that in two years’ time there will be 200,000 vacancies.
“India produces 1.2 million engineering graduates a year, the Philippines produce more than us, so does Iran, so does Mexico; it’s not a sustainable situation.”
It seems that the government is faced with a tricky situation – channelling more funding into engineering courses and apprenticeships, which it can little afford at the present time, or watching economic recovery become limited thanks to constraints within the manufacturing sector.
Do you think it is a lack of information regarding career options in engineering which is putting young people off, or is the subject simply not an attractive prospect for the majority of school pupils?
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