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Engineers find themselves in seller's market
Monday 3 September 2007
Experienced electronics designers and managers are a precious resource in the UK, which can only be good news for engineers looking to progress their careers this year.
A skills survey by the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) has found more than 70 per cent of engineering and technology companies in the UK are struggling to recruit experienced or mid career level staff.
Significantly, the annual skills survey shows that leadership is the skill most lacking among experienced staff, with a quarter of respondents stating that typical recruits did not meet their expectations.
The survey of 500 businesses reveals that, although the engineering and technology sector is still growing and recruiting, only 56 per cent of respondents believe they will be able to recruit enough people into engineering and technical roles this year. This represents a fall from 65 per cent in the 2006 survey.
When asked about the reasons for difficulty in recruiting suitable candidates in the engineering and technology sector over the next four years, 35 per cent cite 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 say that being unable to offer a sufficient salary will be a factor in recruiting staff in four years time.
Many companies claim they now provide additional training with technical, mentoring, coaching, and communication and leadership skills being the top needs addressed.
According to Robin McGill, chief executive of the IET, companies should be investing more in the continued professional development of their staff to ensure they retain and attract new recruits and successfully tackle the shortage of candidates at mid career level.
The survey also shows that recruitment of women within the industry has remained static. Just seven per cent of the engineering and technology workforce are women.
“The IET report cites that the most important criteria for recruiting skilled staff in the UK is to scale business,” comments Carson Bradbury, European director of Cre8Ventures, a microelectronics start-up support company run by Mentor Graphics.
“Nowhere is this truer than within our start-up fabless semiconductor industry, which is now being forced to attract the highly skilled engineers they require from other countries.”
Of those companies recruiting from abroad, 46 per cent were recruited from the EU.
The IET is directly addressing the skills issue by offering financial awards, totalling almost £1m, to engineering students to encourage a greater take up of engineering and technology courses at university.
The scholarships and bursaries are offered as part of the IET’s Ambition awards programme, which already boasts the Power Academy which was created to address the shortage of power engineers in the UK.
The undergraduate awards include ‘scholarships for engineering excellence’, which are available to students starting an IET accredited degree course.
A skills survey by the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) has found more than 70 per cent of engineering and technology companies in the UK are struggling to recruit experienced or mid career level staff.
Significantly, the annual skills survey shows that leadership is the skill most lacking among experienced staff, with a quarter of respondents stating that typical recruits did not meet their expectations.
The survey of 500 businesses reveals that, although the engineering and technology sector is still growing and recruiting, only 56 per cent of respondents believe they will be able to recruit enough people into engineering and technical roles this year. This represents a fall from 65 per cent in the 2006 survey.
When asked about the reasons for difficulty in recruiting suitable candidates in the engineering and technology sector over the next four years, 35 per cent cite 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 say that being unable to offer a sufficient salary will be a factor in recruiting staff in four years time.
Many companies claim they now provide additional training with technical, mentoring, coaching, and communication and leadership skills being the top needs addressed.
According to Robin McGill, chief executive of the IET, companies should be investing more in the continued professional development of their staff to ensure they retain and attract new recruits and successfully tackle the shortage of candidates at mid career level.
The survey also shows that recruitment of women within the industry has remained static. Just seven per cent of the engineering and technology workforce are women.
“The IET report cites that the most important criteria for recruiting skilled staff in the UK is to scale business,” comments Carson Bradbury, European director of Cre8Ventures, a microelectronics start-up support company run by Mentor Graphics.
“Nowhere is this truer than within our start-up fabless semiconductor industry, which is now being forced to attract the highly skilled engineers they require from other countries.”
Of those companies recruiting from abroad, 46 per cent were recruited from the EU.
The IET is directly addressing the skills issue by offering financial awards, totalling almost £1m, to engineering students to encourage a greater take up of engineering and technology courses at university.
The scholarships and bursaries are offered as part of the IET’s Ambition awards programme, which already boasts the Power Academy which was created to address the shortage of power engineers in the UK.
The undergraduate awards include ‘scholarships for engineering excellence’, which are available to students starting an IET accredited degree course.
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