Despite years of initiatives and many millions of pounds, the UK engineering sector still has a significant shortage of skilled people in engineering, particularly in specialist technical positions - costing the UK economy an estimated £1.5bn. There is a host of conflicting information around where the weakest link is. Is it a lack of STEM students and apprenticeships or do we have the students but they are going into different careers? One study by the universities of Warwick and Leicester found that the UK has good numbers of students undertaking STEM related degrees but that a large proportion of them are not going into highly skilled STEM positions after they graduate.

The study used data from a range of sources including the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the Annual Population Survey. It found that, while the vast majority (87%) of STEM graduates work in graduate-level jobs, just under half work in ‘highly skilled’ positions and just 17 per cent of graduates work in shortage areas such as science, engineering or ICT.

The research also found that a substantial proportion of STEM graduates who do go into technical roles move out of these roles as their careers progress, but few older workers move into highly skilled STEM positions.

Why are students going into less technical roles, what does the industry need to change to attract and keep STEM students in these positions, and can universities do anything to encourage students to go down a more specialist career route?

Apprenticeships have done a great job of attracting a more diverse cohort of young people into the profession in recent years, but the same problem appears to be recurring - the apprentices are moving into broader roles as their careers progress.

A study by Subcon found that 67 per cent of UK manufacturers are worried about the future availability of skilled staff for their business.

There is a perception amongst young people that the broader your professional skill set and the more transferrable your skills are, the better your prospects are. Universities, the government and employers need to consider how this perception can be changed. With the constant threat of recession, there may also be a feeling that those in highly niche positions who find themselves out of work may find it harder to find new employment.

UK engineers also over-represent on gender (male), background (middle-class, white) and family capital (science and engineering heritage), so the age-old challenge of diversifying the industry remains – in 2017,  just 8% of STEM apprentices were women, which in comparison to 50% in other industries, is shockingly low.

The World Economic Forum reports that by 2025, 75 per cent of the workforce will be Millennials, who can bring creativity and fresh eyes to the industry. Engineering is creative, it’s problem solving, it’s a profession in great need of fresh perspectives and if it wants to attract and keep the next generation of skilled engineers it will need to get creative in the way it recruits, especially in the most highly technical roles.