Mechanical engineering on new Shortage Occupation List thanks to skills shortage

Mechanical engineering will likely feature on the new Shortage Occupation List thanks to a persistent skills shortage.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recommended that the profession is on the latest list, which was first published in 2013 and allows employers to hire workers from outside the European Economic Area more easily.

“We are pleased that the MAC is recommending adding mechanical engineering to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL),” said IMechE head of education and skills Peter Finegold. “Despite contributing £1.23tn to the UK’s total turnover, the engineering industry retains a persistent skills shortage.”

He added: “Not only is the sector disproportionately male and not ethnically diverse, it is also ageing, with the bulk of the baby boomer engineering population reaching retirement at the same time as an expansion in engineering and other related technologies…

“Given that 90% of UK engineers are male, and tend to come from a relatively narrow social background, the sector must do more to challenge and change the culture, retain the relatively high number of women engineers who leave the profession in early career and encourage more people who do not fit the engineering archetype to join and then remain in the profession.”

Mechanical engineering is 24th on the MAC’s ranking of ‘shortage indicators’. The profession’s vacancy rate has been consistently above average, the government body said.

“Today’s labour market is very different to the one we reviewed when the last SOL was published in 2013. Unemployment is lower and employers in various industries are facing difficulties in finding skilled people to fill their vacancies," said MAC chairman professor Alan Manning.

“That is why we have recommended expanding the SOL to cover a range of occupations in health, information and engineering fields.

“However, our recommendations are clearly only applicable under the current immigration system, while EU free movement remains. We are recommending a full review of the SOL once there is a clearer picture of what the future immigration system will look like.”