58 per cent of the UK’s most highly-trained and experienced engineers are not using their specialist skills at work, according to new research from Oxford Intelligence.
In the week when EngineeringUK’s 2009/10 Report confirms that Britain needs to recruit almost 600,000 engineers up to 2017 to remain globally competitive, a new survey of advanced engineering skills across Western Europe shows that more than 1.5 million UK engineers are not using their specialist skills at work.
The findings are part of a survey, The Western European Location Skills Audit(c), carried out by Oxford Intelligence, the research-led consultancy focused on foreign direct investment strategies for governments, international corporates and economic development agencies.
“Our study has identified a significant number of people that have effectively been lost to our engineering sector. While we look at ways to bring new talent into the industry, our report suggests we should be focusing on plugging the gaps that are leading to the loss of engineering skills” said Business Development Director, Jonathan Davidson.
The survey considers a range of factors that could be creating this gap, including salary, gender and location-based factors. Understanding why engineering has lost nearly 1.5M skilled people could not only help the sector retain talent, it could also reduce the cost of expensive training initiatives aimed at filling the void.
Davidson added “Oxford Intelligence set out to identify the current availability of talent as well as allowing us to profile the workforce and develop support for economic development and corporate location planning. While we identify that 1.5 million have been lost, that doesn’t mean they can’t be encouraged to come back to the sector. This could be a win-win for the government and the industry if we could develop policies that encourage people with an existing level of skills, training and experience to return to the profession.”
About The Western European Location Skills Audit(c)
The Oxford Intelligence Western European Location Skills Audit(c) provides data on the available skilled workforce across eight ‘hard-to-find’-skill sets in 10 key countries. The survey set out to:
Produce the first-ever overview and comparison of ‘hard-to-find’ skills available in the Western European workforce
Develop a skills-mapping tool for practical application in site selection, investment promotion and skills planning projects
Oxford Intelligence – https://www.oxint.com