More work needed to boost number of UK engineers - IMechE
1 min read
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is calling on Government, employers, Professional Engineering Institutions and academia to get their act together and urgently accelerate moves to boost the number of people taking on careers in engineering.
Stephen Tetlow, chief executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: "There is still a wide-spread failure to grasp the scale of the skills gap facing the UK. On the face of it, the latest figures from the Engineering Council look good with the number of professional engineers across the country growing by 17% last year.
"But with the ageing workforce and so many retiring from engineering, the total number of engineers and technicians in the country increased by only three people. We need 100,000 professionals each year to give our country any chance of sustainable growth for the future. The figures are deeply worrying and frankly not far short of pathetic."
He added that just 5% of professional engineers were female last year. "I am convinced the Government has got the message, but I'm not convinced we are all doing what it takes to deliver in time. We need to scale up our efforts significantly, urgently and strategically. We need real leadership - now - to stop us falling over a cliff-edge."
The Engineering Council's register of professionally registered engineers showed that there were 222,603 professional engineers in 2013, compared with 222,600 in 2012 and 248,418 10 years ago, a decline of 10% over a decade.
