Skill Shortage
Jenny_Austin
Posts: 367 Forum Member
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The skill shortage is a regular subject on TV, with some business featured saying they need to go abroad to get skilled people.
So why does the UK not produce the skilled people it needs.
I know many people who left uni with IT and engineering degrees and unable to get training to fill these jobs.
So why does the UK not produce the skilled people it needs.
I know many people who left uni with IT and engineering degrees and unable to get training to fill these jobs.
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Comments
Many can barely put a sentence together. They lack confidence and dress sloppily. Perhaps they feel their degree entitles them to walk into a job of their choosing.
That is the impression I get having listened to employers.
I know of somebody who can hardly dress themselves that has a degree
and a whole host of friends who took mickey mouse degrees just to live the 'student life'
most dropped out after the first year.
Bingo. Entitlement is exactly the problem. Of course poor literacy and numeracy skills don't help either.
My father went to uni and got a good job and did OK, my uncle left with hardly any qualifications, he is now a multi millionaire, which one is smarter?
Many of the past engineers and innovators that made the UK great did not go to university and seeing how UK industry has failed over the last few years the smart people seem not to be that smart.
There a lot of people living in the UK and i find it hard to believe it is not possible to find clever people, who dress for the occasion. I suggest there is no training places and UK industry wants people who are already qualified and not make the effort to train them.
Maybe that just shows that degrees aren't preparing people properly for the world of work. Your degree course should be a large part of your training. You can't blame employers for hiring experienced people from abroad when they can get them cheaper than a fresh-faced UK graduate who needs hand-holding for the first few months.
IT/Software degrees are especially bad for not teaching the practical and soft skills required by employers. Courses are all about individual work rather than cooperating in large teams.
Many engineers are now having to move abroad themselves to get experience before being able to get a job in the UK. In areas such a the Gulf and SE Asia, if you have a degree from a British University and able to speak fluent English then there are opportunities available which would be hard to get back home. I know a Civil Engineer graduate who couldn't get a job here so he went to work in Malaysia for a year on a major construction project and ended up managing a big team of local workers. That experience was great for his CV and he then found it a lot easier to get a job on his return to the UK.
They do but I've never heard them provide any detail much beyond that sort of headline.
Where there are skills shortages business should be discussing this with the education sector and the government. The education sector also need to wise up to the fact education in the latter years should be much more about preparing students for the world of work.
Your first line does not make sense after reading your last line. What is it you are saying? If most people drop out after a year then how can almost everyone have a degree?
That's absolutely true for most disciplines.
However, I would like to think the bloke that's taking my appendix out has had some formal training.
there is no skills shortage.
They simply want very cheap labour.
To them it does not matter how many people can do it at X price
they will always always want it done at X-1.
Because British business can find the people it needs from outside the UK ?
and the fact that skilled brits tend to emigrate to the anglosphere where the pay is higher.
That's so old skool grandad. You just need to download the app and follow the instructions. One of the best examples of our skillz crisis is probably demonstrated by watching the Apprentice. These are 20 of our 'best' potential entrepreneurs. The demonstrate supreme confidence in their capability, but little real business sense.
It's cheaper for companies to drain the third world of skilled people, then train up the people of this country. Think NHS.
As for IT, that's where the con merchants like Computeach based in Dudley come in, to plug to alleged 'skill shortage'.
I have several friends who have jobs in the £50K to £100K bracket, yet have no degrees, a few HNC's maybe, but they came into these above average salaries after serving one of the most useful alternatives to an apprenticeship. That is the Armed Force's technical branches, some after 22 years but some after 12 years or less.
They had accelerated training in fields such as IT, Telecoms, Avionics even Cyber Security, then bags of experience, at the coal face dealing with all manner of challenges, then given guidance on getting a job and aceing interviews when leaving.
Employers generally fall over themselves for these people, but often only want to pay the rate a graduate gets. So some turn to contracting in the UK or work abroad as previously mentioned.
So if the military can teach/train valuable technical skills (often in less time) why can't industry or tertiary education?
Because industry doesn't need to spend the money doing it when they can cherry pick individuals trained by the military at the tax payers expense.
Except of course with draw down and £Billion black holes the military is training a lot less, just as industry needs more.
Some of the highest earning people I know are tradesmen and none of them have degrees. A decent plumber, electrician or builder can easily make £50-100k a year.
Take my brother for example. He left school at 16 with only a couple of GCSEs. He got a job labouring on a building site, literally worked his way up the ladder and now runs his own building business. He now earns more than I do and I was the one who went through University. I really don't know how we are related - he can build a house while I can just about manage to change a light bulb.
My Dad has made a nice living as a tradesman and he never went to University. We really need to stop pushing the myth that University education is essential if young people want a good job.
I know people who left school after A Levels who are now managers in good companies and are on a great career path. I also know people who have degrees (and even Masters degrees) who are stuck in call centre jobs.
Totally agree. I would encourage any youngster to consider learning a trade rather than going to University. The world will always need plumbers, electricians and builders more than media studies or sociology graduates
Having said that the number of sufficiently qualified 18 year olds who potentially miss out on getting what decent apprenticeships are available because of what they're told the the benefit a degree will offer them probably adds to the illusion of a skills shortage.
I just wish a lot of those trades made it into the national ciriculum to start with. I've always maintained that kids never get the chance to dabble with the real skills they'll need in later life, ignite a spark of interest or discover their true potential.
I'd support a longer school day if I thought our kids were getting hands on exposure to trades and a tailored academic program to supplement those skills.
I'm now 53. I've had a pretty wide ranging career that has covered everything from working at GCHQ to labouring on a building site and IT project management to taxi driving with numerous other ventures inbetween and i can say, hand on heart, I've never had to draw from the well of a fraction of what I learned at school throughout my entire adult life.
Why germany is better at training its workers, http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CEoQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fbusiness%2Farchive%2F2014%2F10%2Fwhy-germany-is-so-much-better-at-training-its-workers%2F381550%2F&ei=oRdcVJ64BI2BaYOagtgJ&usg=AFQjCNGmgk2jvrFe9QpaYGThwU2iUGSB6A&bvm=bv.79184187,d.d2s&cad=rja
Cheers for that. That looks pretty much exactly what I'd like to see us do so the question is....
...why don't/can't we?
It seems to be that along time ago uk buisness/ uk governments deciced apprenticeship, was not the way forward and in alot of ways nearly died out altogether, which was a big mistake, and sending every one off to get degrees was the in thing, and forgot that, buisness and education have to work together for things to work.. We also have to remember we invite alot more foreign students over to the uk to learn these skills and trades, so take these skills and trades back to thier own country were they learn other people to these skills and trades.