Skills gap must be tackled, say employers
The industrial strategy is only viable if the skills gap is closed, a survey of engineering employers has found.
A survey revealed that 61% of employers ranked the recruitment of engineering staff top of a list of challenges in achieving their business objectives in the next three years, and 75% agreed that tackling the skills gap is fundamental to making the government’s strategy viable.
Brexit is expected to have an impact on the flow of engineering talent into the country, the report said, however a minority of employers (29%) saw leaving the European Union as an obstacle to achieving their business objectives in the next three years.
Crossrail talent and resources director Valerie Todd said: “The top three concerns are our reliance on large numbers of EU workers in our ancillary services; the number of people who have worked here a long time and whose talent, expertise and skills we don’t want to lose; and that in any organisation, you deliver more succinctly, more efficiently and more productively when you have certainty. There is a risk of a long period of uncertainty having a corrosive effect on productivity.”