Update on the Engineering sector

The ninth annual report on the engineering industry has been published by the Institute of Engineering and Technology, based on a survey of 400 employers of engineering and IT staff. Overall 51% of the firms are recruiting engineers in 2014, with more than half of the companies reporting difficulties in finding the right staff. However, the recruitment of IT staff has fallen from 16% of companies in 2013 to 13%. For the IT sector the main concern was finding apprentices. Since 2013 the number of level 2 Apprenticeships has more than doubled but the number of level 4 higher Apprenticeships has remained static. 

In terms of applicants, 44% felt school leavers did not meet reasonable expectations for skill levels, with 30% saying they did not have enough practical experience and 25% that they did not have the technical expertise. There was also a lot of criticism about literacy and numeracy skills. However, there was even more criticism about graduates, with 54% complaining about skills shortages. The main areas of concern were practical experience 44%, technical expertise 21%, leadership skills 22%, communication skills 15% and ability to work on own initiative 15%, 11% also complained about literacy skills. Just 6% of the engineering workforce were women.