Shortages of high-tech engineering skills are threatening to jeopardise economic growth and competitiveness in the UK, according to the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology).

The industry organisation said its annual skills survey of 500 businesses showed that more than 70 per cent of engineering and technology companies in the UK are struggling to recruit experienced or mid career level staff.

“The difficulty in recruiting experienced staff has the potential to hinder or stifle growth and is a problem that cannot be easily or quickly addressed,” said Robin McGill, chief executive of the IET.

According to McGill, companies need to invest more in the continued professional development of their staff to ensure that they retain and attract new recruits and successfully tackle the shortage of candidates at mid career level.

“But it’s not all down to business though,” said McGill. “Getting science and technology in our education system right must be one of the first challenges the Brown Government addresses.”

The findings from the IET’s skills survey also showed that leadership skills were the most lacking among experienced staff, with a quarter of respondents stating that typical recruits did not meet their expectations.

It revealed that although the engineering and technology sector is still growing and recruiting, only 56 per cent of respondents believed that they would be able to recruit enough people into engineering and technical roles this year. This represented a fall from 65 per cent in the 2006 survey.

When asked about the reasons for having difficulty in  recruiting suitable candidates in the engineering and technology sector over the next four years 35 per cent said shortages with specific skills, closely followed by lack of suitably qualified candidates (29 per cent) and candidates lacking the right experience (20.3 per cent). Only 14.5 per cent said that being unable to offer a sufficient salary would be a factor in recruiting staff in four years time.

The survey also revealed that almost 90 per cent of companies had to provide additional training to address knowledge or skills gaps of new recruits of all levels.