Manufacturers face recruitment ‘crunch’, warns EEF

It has warned that the manufacturing sector will need almost one million workers by 2020 to replace those retiring or leaving the industry in its report, Improving the Quality and Quantity of Graduate-level Skills. It added: "However, this demand comes at a time when skills from within the UK are already in short supply, while companies face ever-increasing difficulties in recruiting from outside of Europe." The EEF found that, in the next three years, 66% of manufacturers planned to recruit an engineering graduate. Over a quarter of firms (27%) will also be on the recruitment trail for those with business and administration degrees, while 20% will be taking on people with a technology degree. "However," it said, "their plans could be holed by the limited number of STEM students coupled with the number of graduates lacking industry experience and manufacturing knowledge. As a result, eight in 10 manufacturers want to see higher education establishments prioritise improving the employability of students, while 79% want courses to be designed to meet industry needs. "Importantly, almost three quarters (74%) want to see universities build stronger relationships with employers - crucial if students are to gain valuable work experience and therefore the skills and knowledge which employers say are currently lacking." Terry Scuoler (pictured), chief executive of EEF, said: "With UK manufacturing continuing to expand and grow, access to the right skills in the right numbers is ever more important. Businesses are engaging with universities, sponsoring students and hiring graduates, but we need action now if we are to meet expected demand. Decisive steps must be taken if we do not want to see the manufacturing sector increasingly looking outside the UK for talent for fear of otherwise running out of steam... "It is vital to ensure that there is greater collaboration between employers and educators, that universities have sufficient STEM funding and that all STEM students undertake work experience in industry. Not only would this significantly improve the quality and quantity of graduates, but it would send out a clear message that gaining these much-needed and valuable skills is the way forward." In other findings, over half (53%) of manufacturers found the process of sponsoring an overseas (non-EU) student to be very time-consuming, while others had difficulties obtaining visas (44%) and sponsorship licences (41%). Just 29% found the entire process easy.