Skills shortages are a number one concern

Skills shortages are now the no. 1 issue for the process industries worldwide, industry leaders report. The problems, they say, are most acute in countries which have, over recent times, reduced their focus on manufacturing.

In the UK, for example, the national apprenticeship and studentship schemes, which helped start the careers of many senior people in industry, fell out favour with the government - and many employers - in the early 1980s.

“When those schemes ended, the number of studentships and apprenticeships fell off, and we really haven’t seen a significant pick up since then,” Graham Philp, chief executive of UK automation industry association GAMBICA, noted at a panel discussion during the recent Honeywell User Group 2011 (HUG 11) meeting in Baveno, Italy.

Devalued

Dr Tom Duesterberg, executive director for manufacturing at the Aspen Institute, likewise, bemoans how industrial training programmes have been “devalued” in the US over the last 30 years.

At a separate discussion forum - at Rockwell’s Automation Fair 2011 (RA’11) in Chicago - Duesterberg contrasted the US situation to that in Germany, where companies are required to belong to trade associations that put money into training programmes. Young people compete hard to get into these programmes, which, typically, combine degree-level study with practical experience. Graduates are almost guaranteed good job offers, the US expert added.

Similarly in Japan, a series of high-level technical colleges works closely with the industrial sector to ensure that students can learn everything, from chemical and process engineering to life sciences and IT. The students also spend at least one year of a five-year programme in an internship at a company and, said Duesterberg, are in high demand when they graduate.

The value of close links between industry and academia was also highlighted at the HUG11 event. Mohamed Abdel Galeel Saieh, a ZADCO trainee instrumentation & control engineer, graduated with a BSc in electrical engineering from the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi in 2010. He explained how courses at the institute are sponsored by companies such as ADNOC, the national oil company, BP, Shell and JODCO (Japan Oil Development Co). A key focus, he said, is on internships, where, for example, students go to overseas countries such as Japan to see how the local engineers work.

In the UK and the US, by contrast, there is a lack of industry-preparedness among young people coming into industry.

“Graduates are leaving [university] with the right qualifications but not the right problem-solving capabilities or the written and verbal communication skills that we need in industry,” Philp said. UK companies, he added, are often wary of putting these graduates through intensive training, only for them to leave and join another company that has not had that expense.

“So there is a reluctance to train raw graduates, at least in the UK,” said Philp, noting that a new graduate is probably of less use to a company than someone who has done an apprenticeship and/or has had some practical experience.

“There is an issue with the quality [of graduates], not just academic, that are coming out of the training institutes and also a reluctance to do primary training in the industry,” the GAMBICA boss concluded. “Maybe apprenticeships are the answer, but I just feel that they will have to be incentivised.”

Academic challenge

While greater collaboration between industry and academia would clearly help, achieving this is, apparently, much easier said than done.
“In the US, working with educational establishments is often a challenge,” said Duesterberg. “Even if you bring [together] money and students, [educators] don’t want to put programmes in place as they don’t think there is a future in these areas.”

Indeed, there is some research to back the academics’ bleak assessment of career prospects in industry. A recent University of Birmingham study found that over 12.5% of UK engineering graduates are still unemployed a year after graduating, compared with 9.6% for all graduates.

According to Frank Whitsura, vice president/general manager, Americas, at Honeywell Process Solutions, this could be explained, in part, by the fact that people with engineering and science qualifications are attracted to any job that requires a mathematical background “which nowadays applies to very much everything”.

The Honeywell executive also pointed to the huge numbers of engineering and science graduates coming out every year in places like China and India, commenting: “We have a mismatch of where the engineering graduates are and where some of the demand is.

“We also have rising demand in those countries for more skills, whereas there is emigration from North America and Western Europe to those countries where demand is very strong,” Whitsura commented.

In the Middle East, an age profile of ex-pat engineers in the Gulf States shows that 80% are aged 40 years and above, whereas their local colleagues are mainly in the 30-40 age bracket - reflecting how cash-rich companies in the region are able to poach experienced technicians and engineers from Western countries.

But even Middle East countries are now experiencing skill-shortage issues due to competition from India, especially for senior engineers, noted Ahmed Ghuloom Abdullah, maintenance manager of Gulf Petrochemical Industries Co., based in Bahrain. “There are experience issues here too,” he said in Baveno. “It is hard to get 20 years’ experience in just two years.”

Skills concerns are not limited to career starters, according to Alberto Leni, instrumentation, control and telecoms corporate department manager for Italy-based Saipem’s engineering and construction business.

Leni identified senior people, particularly those in their mid-30s up to their 50s, as the main skills-gap area.

“There is a big shortage of engineers with 20 years’ experience,” the Italian engineer said at the HUG11 meeting. “We are able to give our clients experienced engineers with five up to 15 years’ experience [only], in the best case. This is happening in almost every country we operate.”

The problem is being exacerbated as countries extend the age of retirement, as this is creating a barrier to those coming through, noted Philp.

“There are just not enough engineers coming through and gaining that practical experience so that they can become the peer group in the years ahead,” he commented.

Sharp end

Another part of the battle is to get kids interested in science and engineering. This is a growing problem, even in industry-supportive countries such as Germany and Japan, and where lessons can be learned from those at the sharp end of the problem.

Among a range of schools inititives currently under way in the US, is a programme at the Academy of Engineering, which offers a hands-on, project-based approach to teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. This emphasises the importance of study based around actual engineering design problems.

“The scheme really increases opportunities to capture kids’ enthusiasm and keep them connected,” said Irv McPhail, president and CEO of the National Action for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), which runs the initiative.

NACME is focused on young people, particularly from minority communities, who are under-represented in the STEM workforce, McPhail explained at the RA11 forum in Chicago.

“There is a lack of awareness among young people in minority communities, partly because they might not have an engineer or technical person in the family or living next door. They are, therefore, unaware of the career opportunities that are available in science and engineering.

McPhail also went on to call for major improvements in the standard of maths and science education.

“Teachers must be able to impart the knowledge and excitement, and drive enthusiasm in young people, particularly those who have traditionally been under-represented in the science and engineering workforce,” the NACME leader concluded.