3 Ways to Tackle the Engineering Skills Shortage

What comes to mind when you think Engineer? High vis vest, hard hat, clipboard? Truth be told, you can find Engineers in a broad selection of industries, such as Space, Rail, Computers/IT, Oil & Gas, Nuclear… the list goes on.

This week sees the annual “Tomorrow’s Engineer’s Week”, now in its 7^th year, which gives Engineers across all sectors the opportunity to showcase their work and spread the meaning of why they do what they do. The Royal Academy of Engineering have also launched “This is Engineering Day” this year in support, with an aim to inspire new generations of talent to pursue a career in Engineering. They also look to tackle the substantial Engineering skills shortage facing the UK today. But how?

New innovation centre the answer to industry demand

The University of Central Lancashire in Preston have just opened their astonishing £35million investment, state of the art Engineering & Innovation centre in the heart of the North West. The centre will provide tailored courses to respond to industry demand, preparing and educating future generations of Engineers, ensuring they have the right engineering skills to hit the ground running in their careers.

“Our aim for the EIC is to help ensure we are at the forefront of the new ‘digital’ industrial revolution; supporting new generations of engineers and shaping the future of skills development.

What we’re also enthused about is the excitement and willingness of industry partners to get involved from a variety of sectors including Automotive, Aerospace, Oil and Gas and Energy. Our strong links with the industry ensures our course portfolio and research is aligned with the current and future demands of business, enabling us to develop sought-after graduates who thrive in the workplace.”

– Professor Ian Allison, Executive Dean, UCLan Faculty of Science and Technology.

Employers to become more open to diversity

With a national average shortfall of 59,000 engineers every year in the UK, employers are realising it’s time to warm to the idea of diversity in the workplace. Did you know only 12% of professional engineers are female and less than 9% are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds?

“To tackle the challenge, we need to create more flexible workingenvironments, erase traditional misconceptions and communicate the wonderful opportunities that exist within modern engineering across all age groups, from primary school children to adults looking for a career change.”


– Jane Atkinson, Executive Director, Engineering and Automation at Bilfinger.

Graduate schemes such as BAE and Nuvia prove to be increasingly popular

Encouraging a young workforce to pursue a career in engineering is one thing, but actually getting your foot in the door once qualified can be tricky business, especially if you have little to no experience.

Businesses are now looking to increase the number of schemes they offer for graduates in response to the engineering skill shortage. BAE Systems have embraced the idea and now host a wide range of engineering schemes, including Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Nuclear Engineering and Systems and Software Engineering, to name a few.

Another big name offering an excellent graduate scheme is International nuclear solutions business, Nuvia. Nuvia offer multiple 2 year programmes, covering modern engineering and design techniques.

Tomorrow’s Engineers Week highlights how engineers are changing our world

What better way to understand the opportunities that engineering can give career seekers, than Tomorrow’s Engineer’s Week? As part of this ground-breaking week, engineers around the country have created short videos to spread the word on what their mission is and their journeys to becoming today's engineering workforce. Here are our favourites.

If you’d like to start your job search today to land your dream engineering role, take a look at our latest jobs: http://bit.ly/2NlCAoS.