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03/03/2011
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The UK Manufacturing Summit, held at the ImechE, London on March 2nd, attracted the great and the good from industry, finance and Government to discuss this year's theme of 'Rebuilding UK Manufacturing'.
Offering the Government view of the skills gap, Mark Prisk MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, asserted that changing people's view of manufacturing was "difficult, but necessary". He also offered the sobering statistic that, although 43% of graduates graduated with a first degree in a STEM subject, only 5% then went on to work within manufacturing.
Addressing one of the possible reasons for this, Mr Prisk drew on figures from the Office of National Statistics suggesting engineering salaries compare well with those for other professions.
Clearly these statistics are from a reliable source and well founded. However, to judge from correspondence I receive from readers of Eureka - engineers themselves, in other words - it is clear that they believe that relatively poor pay in engineering is one of the major reasons for the skills shortage.
What is certain is that, regardless of these statistics, there is at the very least a continuing perception of engineering as being poorly paid. Until that perception is properly addressed, shoring up the skills gap will be an uphill struggle.
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Author
Paul Fanning
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