Getting the ‘skills gap’ right

London — Much of the effort going in to address the skills and training needs of the process industries is based on the premise that the sector is facing major shortages of engineers with the expertise needed to deal with increasingly complex facilities and equipment.

The shortfall is widely believed to be due to the high proportion of the workforce set to retire over the next few years, and the lack of young people coming though to replace them — a viewpoint that continues to prompt urgent calls for action, which more often than not fall on deaf ears.

While few would question the existence of skills gaps, there is, it seems, a need for a much clearer understanding of the problem, and what it means for specific industries such as oil & gas, chemicals, pharma, food & beverage, power and utilities.

This is highlighted, for example, by a recent University of Birmingham study (see PE report) that appears to undermine claims that UK industry is facing a shortage of people with science and technology degrees.

Of graduates who leave university with a degree in engineering, it found that around 20% end up in graduate jobs not related to their degree, while a further 24% find work in sections of the economy not requiring a higher education qualification. This suggested there was not a ready supply of engineering jobs for all of them, the report said.

Meanwhile, industry trade association Oil & Gas UK has identified a rising trend in the overall number of people aged under 30 working on offshore installations in UK waters (See PE report). Their presence, it said, “is helping to rejuvenate the offshore population, which many still wrongly believe is ageing.”

“Oil & Gas UK believes it is important to understand the demographic profile of the offshore workforce to allow the industry to plan ahead and ensure it will have access to the skilled personnel it needs to support its activities in the years to come,” said Malcolm Webb, its chief executive. ??

Webb linked the increase in young people working on the UK’s offshore oil and gas installations to the progress of industry’s technician training schemes and graduate programmes.

“The loss of experienced workers is of concern and fast-track development programmes are now in place to address ongoing skills shortages in certain occupations,” he concluded.

Many other industry groups could, perhaps, consider adopting similarly targeted approaches to meeting their skill needs.