The engineering sector is facing serious recruitment problems in the UK, with a lack of fresh talent entering the industry. Engineering consultancy, Haden Freeman Ltd (HFL), has recently been forced to look outside of the UK for qualified engineers.
Due to the shortfall of engineers in the UK, engineering companies across the nation are faced with a significant problem to find skilled employees.
Last year, a survey by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) found that no less than 40percent of UK companies believed that they were almost certain not to be able to recruit the necessary number of engineers or technicians to meet their needs between now and 2010.

Skills crisis

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has also warned that the current drop in the number of graduates with core science and technology degrees will inevitably lead to a real skills crisis. UK engineering companies, including Haden Freeman, are now looking as far a field as Brazil to recruit qualified personnel, having already exhausted Eastern Europe.
Clearly, this is not ideal and the UK should be developing home grown talent.
So why is there such a shortage of engineers in the UK? To get qualified engineering graduates, you need to first attract engineering students at university level.
The number of applicants for engineering courses has remained static at around 24500 for the past decade, decreasing from 11percent to just eightpercent of the total number of university entrants.
The CBI recently highlighted that this decrease in numbers is partly caused by a lack of persuasive careers information encouraging young people to continue studying science at a higher level.
As a discipline, engineering simply is not promoted enough to young people choosing their career path.
Responsibility must fall, in part, to the Government. In November last year, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair made a speech to the Royal Society acknowledging that science and technology are central to the nation’s economic success, but what is being done to address this?

Delaying
development

Research carried out by The Royal Academy of Engineering claims that a lack of engineering graduates is costing the UK’s manufacturing sector large sums of money. A third of engineering firms in the country feel that shortages of skills and engineering graduates are delaying the development of new products with 58percent of respondents predicting that they will have problems recruiting engineers for future projects.
The current skills shortfall risks holding back the nation. We are constantly being reminded that the energy sector is changing and that fossil fuels need to be replaced with new forms of energy. If the present recruitment situation continues, in 10years time, when we need a new power station built, there will be no one to build it. The sector as a whole needs a public relations facelift to make it more appealing to young people.
Primarily, the education system needs to support the engineering sector, by stimulating interest among young people to get involved at an early age.
A previous shortage of medical professionals was abated by an intense recruiting programme to draw in foreign born professionals. Teachers have been recruited through a media heavy Government campaign and substantial financial incentives to enrol on PGCE courses. A similar push is necessary to ensure the future supply of engineering professionals.

Engaging young people

To get young people engaged with engineering, you need to give them ‘hands on’ experience of the industry. Many engineering professionals believe that focussing on science alone can put many students off engineering and that a more practical approach, such as Design and Technology courses, which present work-based scenarios, can be more beneficial. The courses introduce engineering through analysis of a problem and development of a solution, encouraging a creative approach which traditional science courses can bypass.
Creating opportunities for practical implementation of engineering is vital to foster enthusiasm at an early age.
Schemes such as Young Engineers, a national network of science, engineering, electronics and technology clubs in schools and colleges throughout the UK are firmly supported by Haden Freeman, who are presently working with pupils at Stockport Grammar School.
Run by the Royal Academy of Engineers, club members take part in a range of challenges developed by national sponsors, plus compete in other competitions such as Young Engineers for Britain where financial prizes are an added incentive. However, maintaining interest to the point where it develops into a career choice is more difficult.

Lack of prestige

Due to the lack of prestige associated with manufacturing careers, a career in engineering needs to be promoted with the benefits highlighted to potential candidates. A factor which may be of interest to many students, especially given the financial concerns facing most graduates, is that those qualifying in engineering command higher than average starting salaries (29 per cent above the average, according to a UK Department of Trade and Industry survey) and also have high expectations of career progression.
IChemeE, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, in its biennial salary survey, found that the average earnings for Chartered chemical engineers in the UK and Eire now exceed £53000 with salary increases ahead of inflation across all industry sectors. Chemical engineering maintains its position as the best paid of all the mainstream engineering disciplines.
In the same survey, over 90percent of engineers identify their job as challenging and varied. For a career where people are paid well for jobs they enjoy, why are more students not choosing to enroll on engineering courses?
With the future of UK manufacturing under threat, employers must take the initiative and do more to tempt graduates into the appropriate university courses and ultimately, their own organisations.
Many companies, such as Haden Freeman, are attracting future personnel through bursaries, scholarships and training schemes, all of which help to nurture skills development and promote the benefits of working in the engineering sector.
However, given the shortage of UK supply, coupled with the fact that training engineers is an expensive process, there is a worryingly increasing trend amongst engineering companies to tempt already qualified staff from other organisations.
With such a limited supply of engineers, losing personnel is not an option and companies need to look at what they can offer a qualified engineer to keep them. Haden Freeman recognises that good pay, flexible working conditions, exciting and varied projects and a range of skill application and working environments all ensure that staff feel valued and rewarded in their work.
Additionally, offering a programme of continual training and development ensures that engineers can rapidly progress in both their chosen field and the company, supported by employers who benefit from their expertise.
The current employment climate is forcing engineering companies to re-assess the way they recruit and maintain staff, which can only be a benefit to both employers and employees.
However, actions need to be taken by higher authorities to ensure that there is a continued supply of engineers to meet the demand and continual growth of the UK engineering industry. o

Nigel Hirst is managing director of Haden Freeman, Manchester, UK. www.hadenfreeman.com. Haden Freeman Ltd is one the UK’s leading independent engineering and consultancy company, offering a range of engineering management and improvement services.