The engineering skills shortage is a hot topic in the sector right now. It's what everyone is talking about. And rightly so, because it's a huge problem for the industry.

We know we need to address it, but how?

To overcome the shortage, we first need to understand why it's happening. We've written this article to give you the basics of where the skill shortage started.

A good place to start would be the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). SOL highlights jobs facing a shortage of skilled labour, and the Migration Advisory Committee compiles it under the UK Government. It means special dispensations are made regarding immigration if it makes sense to bridge local skill gaps with talented migrant workers.

The idea is to encourage importing qualified talent where it doesn’t exist, effectively making it easier to recruit from international talent pools.

Engineering professionals of all classifications feature heavily on the latest version of the SOL and have done for some years now. Put simply: there aren’t enough skilled Engineers available to fill all the roles the industry has to offer, which sounds like a great problem to have. Only, the skills shortage is causing problems for businesses beyond the occasional recruitment headache.

A survey conducted by industry magazine The Engineer revealed the extent of the impact. 37% of Engineering professionals (out of 250 surveyed) identified the skills deficit as having the biggest impact on their sector.

“According to some estimates, the shortage of STEM skills is costing UK businesses £1.5 billion a year in recruitment, temporary staffing, inflated salaries and additional training costs.”

And yet, more young people than ever before are taking STEM subjects.

So, what's causing it?

Figures from the National Audit Office (NAO) show just 24% of graduates in STEM subjects are known to be working in a STEM occupation six months later. Even despite rising salaries in order to keep good people at this level.

A study conducted at Universities Leicester and Warwick attempted to work out where most STEM graduates were going in their careers, if not a technical position in the industry. According to researcher Dr Patrick White: “STEM graduates were more likely to work in teaching and management than in key ‘shortage areas’ such as science, engineering and ICT.”

The same study revealed there was “no evidence of older workers moving into STEM careers later in life” either. So there’s a lack of qualified talent entering and remaining in the industry, to begin with, but this isn’t the only factor.

Covid-19 has been the defining factor for all industries. While the world now expects to work remotely, it’s very rare an engineer is able to. This immediately limits your access to talent.

To overcome it you'll need to...

There are a few things you can do in order to tackle the shortage:

• Hire Graduates

• Get Your Interview Process Right

• Review Your Offering

• Train to retain

We've recently composed a downloadable eGuide that elaborates on all of these points in more detail. If you'd like to download it, click here to fill in a short form and it's yours to keep.

We also know what makes engineers tick - speak to us at Enterprise Recruitment about how to keep them engaged at the same time as adding value to the business and themselves.