Britain Cries Out for Technical Skills
By
Jan 28, 2008, 15:27

The entrepreneur James Dyson also believes greater take-up of courses like philosophy is hampering the UK’s ability to combat pressing and practical challenges.

As a nation, the tycoon said, “we’ve lost our confidence to engineer and make things” relegating us to a state of redundancy, just as foreign competition intensifies.

Meanwhile neither industry nor government has crushed the “misconception of science and engineering” as leading to “geeky” jobs or careers, Mr Dyson told a podcast for the Times.

“This misperception,” he added, “...puts young people off from what, in reality, has the potential to be a bright, exciting and profitable future.

“The result is that we produce only 24,000 engineering graduates a year, compared with 300,000 in China and 450,000 in India. Britain has to go back to its roots.

“As our balance of trade sinks into the red, we have a choice: do we want Britain to be a theme park, or a hub of creative engineering? We’re on course to shuffle into a sort of residential home for retired great powers.”

As to the cause of this skills crisis, Mr Dyson is clear: “The starting point has to be education. We have to stem the gravitation of our young people towards philosophy, sociology and media studies,” he said.

“As interesting as these subjects may be, they’re not going to provide us with a workforce which can create practical solutions to our 21st century challenges of energy, housing and an ageing population.”

The warnings from Mr Dyson, one of Britain’s best-known design and engineering entrepreneurs, were echoed by the Engineering Employers Federation.

“Science and engineering will be fundamental to enhancing the quality of life in the UK, as well as addressing critical issues, such as climate change and sustainable living,” said Martin Temple, group chairman.

“The belief that we can exist purely as a service economy is now a fast-exploding myth and it is essential that we step up efforts as a society to promote the value of technology-related careers to young people.”

Meanwhile Mr Dyson added: “Britain was the first to trade globally, through the rapid expansion of the Empire, but we’ve lost our confidence to engineer and make things that we had in the 19th and early 20th centuries.”

His comments come in the same week that the technology industry’s Skills Council warned that some entry level IT jobs are disappearing.

Karen Price, chief executive of e-skills, believes the effect is that most IT workers are being forced to “climb a career ladder with the bottom rungs missing.”

In real terms, she believes IT workers must be able to progress rapidly to demanding roles without access to the kind of jobs that would help build their skills and experience.

And fresh research from Creative and Cultural Skills, another UK skills watchdog, shows IT skills to be lacking in the entrepreneurs and employees of tomorrow.

Problematically for innovation, the group reported Information Technology expertise and technical skills, such as specialist knowledge for specific occupations, is wanting.

“There also a key number of skills lacking by those already in the [UK’s creative and cultural] industry,” a spokesman said.

Skills in short supply compared to the number of jobs available included finance and accountancy, management, business and IT.

E-skills plans to fill the IT skills gap with a new masters degree, co-designed by industry players and academics, to teach the entry-level IT skills that have been offshore.