Member Article

Manufacturers recruit foreign engineers due to UK shortage

A study from General Electric covering more than 400 high-tech businesses showed manufacturers have difficulties in recruiting qualified technicians and engineers in the UK.

According to the High Tech Manufacturing Index Report, 31% of manufacturers had to recruit people from outside of the UK due to a lack of qualified high-tech people within Britain.

20% of high-tech businesses said that it was difficult to find people with “unprompted engineering skills” and 10% found it was difficult to recruit people with “the right commitment and positive ‘can do’ attitude.”

Sir Mike Gregory, head of the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge university, said: “In just about every sectors that employs engineers, I hear howls of anguish from companies which find they cannot get the people they want.”

The study suggested that 48% of manufacturers would like to increase staffing levels in the coming year however, finding the right people was still an issue.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Yu-Chih Lin .