Many elements of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it abundantly clear that Europe as a continent is facing a severe shortfall in skilled workers; both the people needed to find solutions throughout the pandemic, and the people needed to manufacture those solutions, have been in short supply.

Many workers have, of course, been displaced or lost their former jobs due to the economic issues caused by the past year of lockdowns. This means that there is an annual demand for over 100 000 engineers and technicians in the UK, as well as nearly 80 000 roles that combine engineering knowledge with other skill sets such as computing. This constitutes a massive 17.1% of all the vacancies available in the country, and this statistic is mirrored in many countries across Europe and the EU. New engineering jobs are constantly being created to fill different demands, and yet there are not enough engineers to fill them.

One reason for this may be the gender disparity in engineering jobs. Only about 10% of the workforce is female, with the gender divide taking shape as early as GCSE exams, in which engineering and general STEM subjects are dominated by boys in terms of uptake. When half of the population are less likely to pursue a career in engineering, it is unsurprising that businesses are struggling to find enough workers. Inclusion within the industry is being heavily promoted, however, in an attempt to attract more female engineers.

Another reason may be the partial failure of some educational courses in providing young people with the skills they need to enter the field. Far fewer people undertake apprenticeships today than they did 40 years ago; the university degrees that many do instead can leave graduates ill-equipped for the workplace, as shown by the 2 000 engineering graduates in the UK in 2019 who were unable to find work. Steps have been taken to combat this with the introduction (from 2022) of new post-16 courses called T-Levels, which are specifically designed to provide young people with the transferable skills they will need to enter different sectors, including engineering.

Further information about the specific skill shortages in this industry are available on the Recruitment Employment Confederation’s website, at www.rec.uk.com.

Sources: Recruitment Employment Confederation JobsOutlook report, 2019, and www.jonlee.co.uk