Opinion

Act now to stop the brain drain impacting the UK infrastructure recovery.

Greg Lettington Hays Recruitment

As the UK economy emerges from recession, the engineering profession across the civil, mechanical and electrical sectors of infrastructure and the built environment are starting to see a welcome return to full order works and potentially healthier margins.

Yet as so often been the case over the last few decades of boom and bust cycles, the entire sector is once again suffering from a dangerous dearth of the skills needed to meet clients surging requirements.

Worse still, the increasingly globalised nature of the professions is now clearly adding to the challenge.

Hays Engineering, working in conjunction with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), has just produced a report which specifically explores the opportunities available to engineers in the UK and overseas.

The work clearly asks a number of serious questions of the UK engineering sector. Not least how, once they have found the vitally needed staff, they do not see them leak away to projects overseas.

Over 3,500 mechanical engineers from around the world were surveyed in November 2013, taking in the huge breadth of activity and experience within the IMechE’s membership from affiliate members through to fellows.

The research drilled into respondents’ lives to finds information on their backgrounds, industry sectors and career ambitions in a bid to understand more about what now drives careers in the sector. And while if focused on the mechanical sector, there is clear evidence that the results are just as applicable across the whole of engineering. 

The survey saw many record comments about the way they perceive the status of their industry in the UK, and explain how they feel about working in other countries. The contrast was once again made between the perceived or actual way that engineers and engineering in the UK is undervalued compared to so many other parts of the world.

Their responses illuminate the career aspirations and experiences of a respected profession, whose talents are integral to the design, development and manufacture of products in industries such as aerospace, automotive, defence, oil and gas, rail and construction.

Yet crucially, while the UK profession stares grimly at the challenges of a major skills gap, nearly two thirds of 64% of the engineers in our survey said that they had been given the opportunity to work in another country and 85% said that they would consider a move abroad if it was offered. 

Overall the survey results provide insight that can help us understand the implications of migration for UK engineering, the factors that lead engineers to work in different territories, and the experiences of many engineers who work and recruit internationally.

But the work also clearly asks a number of serious questions of the UK engineering sector as it strives to find the resources needed to deliver clients’ ambitions. Not least how, once they have found the vitally needed staff, they do not see them leak away to projects overseas.

And in many ways the survey results speak for themselves: While 69% consider there to be adequate work in the UK, only 17% feel that there is enough being done to recognise the work of a professional engineer. 

It is surely time for UK employers to do more to ensure the work of their staff is more highly valued.

 

Greg Lettington is engineering director at recruitment specialist Hays