Alex Onoufriou, Group HR & Talent Director at G&P, explores the engineering skills gap and explains why it’s threatening long-term manufacturing competitiveness and growth.
According to Make UK, “skills shortages remain one of the biggest barriers to growth and productivity for manufacturers”. The reason is simple. Without enough engineers and the right skills, this industry will struggle to deliver, thrive and grow, ultimately losing global competitiveness. Addressing this problem has never been more vital, especially now that more than 33% of the manufacturing workforce is over 50 and quickly approaching retirement age.
The challenge faced by UK manufacturers is twofold. Firstly, there aren’t enough engineers to meet current demand, with nearly 50,000 live vacancies in the sector. Worse still, existing engineers may lack the skills that the manufacturing sector needs. Over a third of employers believe that the engineering workforce isn’t “fit for the future”, with 76% of businesses struggling to recruit for key roles. This problem has been exacerbated by a 40% decline in manufacturing and engineering apprenticeships over the past decade.
Failure to fill this gap is not only impacting manufacturing, but also the wider UK economy. Indeed, more than 4 in 10 manufacturers see their lack of access to domestic labour and skills as a significant threat to business success. Strikingly, the sector’s current live vacancies alone are costing the UK around £4bn every year. Addressing this problem is essential to boost competitiveness and growth.
Widening gap, shrinking competitiveness
Competitiveness is a top concern for 87% of UK manufacturers. This is mirrored by the poor performance of the wider UK economy against the other G7 countries and emerging superpowers like China and India. Skills are fundamental to competitiveness, with 42% of employers citing innovative thinking as the most vital skill for future growth, followed by digital and technical expertise (39%).
Competitiveness also depends, to a large extent, on the ability to rapidly scale-up green technology and decarbonise. This is key to reducing energy costs and boosting resilience, while showing leadership in the fight against climate change. Once again, the skills gap can be a major obstacle along the way, with 36% of businesses purporting to lack the skills to decarbonise by 2050.
Growth will also largely depend on access to engineering skills in high demand. The expansion of sectors such as clean energy, defence and digital will create more than 830,000 new engineering job vacancies by 2030. Without a healthy pipeline of skilled talent, the UK will struggle to develop those industries that will be core to its future growth, including AI, cybersecurity, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.
Investing in engineering talent
The UK’s Industrial Strategy recognises that skills must be more closely aligned with the needs of the IS-8 key growth sectors, including engineering and manufacturing. Its interventions include £1.2bn of additional investment in skills per year by 2028-29, a £187m technology skills package for AI, digital and engineering, a £100m engineering package to launch new Technical Excellence Colleges, and a further Defence skills package. Together, these measures are intended to stimulate the growth of the right skills in the right places, creating a stronger pipeline of talent for the sectors central to the UK’s future competitiveness.
While government-led investment will be essential to address the current skills gap, manufacturing companies also play a pivotal role and many have already risen to the challenge. Half of manufacturers are focusing on training programmes for new recruits, while 4 in 10 are prioritising apprenticeships and “reskilling or redeploying staff due to automation or digital transformation.”
Investment, however, is only part of the equation. To attract and nurture more talent, engineering must be perceived as an inclusive, fulfilling, and rewarding career. As the Engineers 2030 report puts it, we need to build deeper public understanding “of what engineering is and how it helps solve societal problems.” Attracting and nurturing a more diverse talent pool is equally crucial, and we need to empower more people from underrepresented communities to pursue engineering careers.
A holistic solution to the engineering skills gap
The UK manufacturing sector needs more engineers to stay competitive and grow sustainably. Crucially, manufacturers need talented engineers with the skills to address today’s challenges. Make UK estimates that reallocating just 0.1% of the GDP towards workforce development could produce an annual boost to the economy worth between £4.4 and £5.9bn.
Solving the current engineering skills gap begins with making this career more attractive. We need to rethink how we upskill and train existing engineers, equipping them with adaptable skillsets for rapidly evolving technologies through continuous professional development. Specialised training in areas such as artificial intelligence and electric vehicles will ensure the workforce is equipped with the advanced capabilities required for the future of manufacturing.
There is also a critical need to strengthen the pipeline of future engineering talent. Too few young people are entering STEM disciplines, highlighting the importance of making engineering and manufacturing more attractive and accessible career paths from an early age.
This requires greater encouragement of STEM education in schools, alongside broadening entry routes into the sector through revitalised apprenticeships, alternative qualifications and late-career transitions. Partnerships between engineering firms and schools, colleges and universities, for example through organised site visits and mentorship programmes, will help generate awareness of careers in the sector and help inspire the next generation of engineers. Increasing participation from underrepresented groups is equally essential to unlocking a more diverse talent pool. For this, local and national governments, schools, universities and businesses all have a role to play.
Filling the gap, now
For meeting immediate capacity during periods of high demand, manufacturing businesses can acquire the talent and skills they need through outsourced specialist providers of engineering and quality services, like G&P Talent. These providers can deploy highly-skilled temporary workers and contractors, or permanent placements, projects and managed services.
Outsourcing using an engineering service provider ultimately offers experienced expertise, on-demand. Engineers with years of multi-sector, multi-company experience can be integrated directly into the company’s SQA and production teams, actively investigating point-of-fit issues and implementing containment and corrective actions; while skilled technicians can be installed to diagnose and rework completed products.
These engineers and technicians are regularly trained to acquire the most advanced skills required to meet today’s engineering challenges, such as AI and electrification, and they can be deployed in a fast, flexible and agile way, scalable up or down to meet the immediate requirement of the manufacturer.
While training the existing workforce and encouraging the next generation of young engineers is a critical part of the solution, UK manufacturers can also hit the ground running with specialist talent supplied by engineering service providers. Embracing this multifaceted, holistic approach will be critical to addressing the UK’s engineering skills gap, meeting immediate requirements now while preparing a strong pipeline of future engineering talent.
For more information about G&P and its unique engineering and talent services, please visit www.gpqm.com.
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