With UK employment at an all time high and the number of EU nationals coming to work in the UK continuing to fall dramatically, UK manufacturers are facing the biggest shortage of skilled workers since 1989. UK employment is at its highest level since 1971 and unemployment is at its lowest since 1975, making it even harder for UK businesses to recruit new workers, without offering higher salaries.

A survey of more than 6,000 UK employers,  employing more than one million people in the UK , by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has found that 81% of manufacturers struggled to hire the right staff with the right qualifications and experience in the last quarter of  2018. Engineering UK  forecasts an annual shortfall of 20,000 engineers alone.

Dr Adam Marshall, Director General of the BCC, said the government urgently needed to recognise the magnitude of the recruitment difficulties firms faced as ministers prepare to introduce restrictions on EU Nationals working in the EU after Brexit.

Dr Marshall said these findings suggested the government should listen more closely to business when it came to drawing up its migration policies: “Given the magnitude of the recruitment difficulties faced by firms clear across the UK, Business concerns about the government’s recent blueprint for future immigration rules must be taken seriously – and companies must be able to access skills at all levels without heavy costs or bureaucracy.

The BCC said that the lack of clarity over the process of leaving the European Union had led to stagnating growth and business confidence in the UK.

The Manufacturer, the UK’s leading industry publication, has cited a number of ways to solve the skills shortages:

Address The Distinct Lack Of Women In Manufacturing

“Companies failing to take advantage of all available talent are damaging themselves. Current initiatives to engage women in STEM include WISE and Let’s Train Women in Science and Technology. There are still so few women coming into engineering and remaining in engineering careers, however the numbers of women are increasing at postgraduate level. Only 11% of UK engineers, 15% of engineering graduates and 20% of A-level physics students are female. The Times Higher Education recently reported the number of women graduating in engineering and technology-related degrees in the UK rose from 23% in 2012-13 to 25% in 2016-17

Greater Investment In Apprenticeships

Evidence shows that companies are giving greater priority to investing in apprenticeship programmes than recruiting graduates to gain specialist skills for the future;

Almost three-quarters of companies (72%) are planning to recruit apprentices in 2019 compared to 66% in 2014. But, by contrast, the number now planning to recruit graduates has fallen to 34% compared to 66% in 2014.

Also, the latest survey published by EEF shows a clear shift in the direction employers are looking to ensure they have the specialist skills they will need in the future

Improve The Appeal Of UK Manufacturing

Results from a recent poll of 2,000 people found the majority agreed the UK cannot tackle future problems without a strong manufacturing base.  Yet at the same time,  less than 20% of parents  said they would encourage their children to work in manufacturing, believing the sector to be dirty, monotonous, low skilled and poorly paid. Whereas in fact, average weekly wages in manufacturing of  £600 are actually higher than the UK average of £516 per week.

In 2017 a £4m employer-led advanced engineering and automation training centre, the Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology (MCMT) in Shropshire, was set up by a consortium of local businesses to tackle this issue, to reverse the skills and competency gap, bringing training opportunities back to the region.  The majority of the MCMT’s activities are geared towards apprentices, but also schoolchildren.

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