Partner Article

The Skills Gap – Are we doing enough?

Two weeks ago I attended a seminar, the panel discussed the local area, what improvements should and can be made and the media attention received by local businesses.

The most significant part of the discussion for me was about skills shortage within Engineering and Science.

Very valid points were raised;

• Not enough companies are offering work to apprentices
• Too many aging people in the market place, there will be a point when there will be big departure from businesses in the next 10 – 15 years
• Companies are not investing in their current work-force with the aim of preventing the skills gap effecting their business and industry.

So taking this information and continuing on with the debate, the facts I personally believe are equally as significant are;

• What is the government doing to support schools to show people what careers are available to school leavers?
• What do the average parents know about the career choices or options available for their children? As a parent I would like to think I am able to give my children all the information so they can make informed choices but who is telling parents what the options are? Should it be the schools, government or businesses to take responsibility and ensure critical information is provided?
• Are children being exposed to a variety of different types of industries? Certain companies open their doors for school visits – it is encouraging for children to see what takes place, they can then start to make decisions for themselves based upon what has been experienced. The questions should therefore be; Are enough companies engaging and supporting local schools? What type of companies should open their doors?
• What courses are available? As a country we are talking about apprenticeships but what are the actual courses that the apprentices are being put onto? Is it sufficient enough to move forward to progress to a degree course if that is what is required longer term within their position? Will enough companies continue to support people to work full time and gain part-time education so both the individual and the business reap the benefits.

Over recent years I have worked alongside a French company, recruiting French engineers to bring on contracts to the UK to work. The reason we did this is was, France have specialist engineering schools.

The education system encourages their children to explore different areas of engineering anything from Electrical, mechanical, test, computing or methods – the list goes on. We employed over 10 contractors within the last 7 years, each person been over the age of 23 and were more than capable to hit the ground running within the automotive business.

This leads me to question are we doing enough for the skills shortage, should we investigate what other countries are doing in their education systems, what can the UK learn?

We all need to play a part government, schools, companies, parents and children – without developing partnerships we will need to question ‘will it change our skills shortage situation?’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Louise Kennedy .