Engineering news
Report says more needs to be done to promote apprenticeships to young women.
Almost 90,000 new engineers will be needed every year over the next decade to tackle a skills gap, a new report from the Unite union has warned.
Launched in parliament, the report, Engineering excellence – a charter for UK engineering, urged the government to do more to support engineering and called for an "engineered in Britain, bought in Britain" approach to public procurement.
The report stated that “to get anywhere near fulfilling the predicted skills shortages” requires the doubling of the number of engineering apprentices “in order to provide enough skilled employees to keep the economy going”. In particular, it stressed that more women need to be attracted into the sector and more done to promote apprenticeships to young women.
Companies should reshore jobs back to the UK to ensure they answer customer demands more quickly and flexibly, said the union. The organisation also called for the creation of a government backed strategic investment bank, with no shareholders, to provide long-term support and create sustainable growth for small and medium-sized businesses and the wider manufacturing sector.
Linda McCulloch, national officer at Unite, said: "We need urgent action to close the engineering skills gap to ensure we rebalance the economy and have sustainable growth.
"As our report suggests a lack of a joined up, robust industrial policy means the UK is still excessively reliant on service sector jobs and is contributing to the creation of a low wage, low skilled economy.
"To develop a strong economy we need a strong engineering base. The government needs to do more by pursuing an 'engineered in Britain, bought in Britain' policy. It also needs to create a strategic investment bank that backs engineering and manufacturing."