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Skills Shortages

Timothy East
The construction industry (namely services) is suffering from skills shortages without an apparent solution. There has been a flurry of press activity but not much action. How does the industry make itself more attractive to the younger generation? There are short training courses offered but these are not the solution and there are many mature people entering the industry on the promise of a quick buck. The majority of these (that I have encountered) have little passion for the industry and the quality of work can be quite poor. We don't want to end up in a situation whereby these guys are training the next generation.

 

I think that the apprentice schemes should be made easier for SME's to take part in. Many are small concerns and cannot commit to the burden. However, some of these owner operators have so much experience to offer and it's a shame to let the knowledge pass by. Perhaps the 'apprentice' could be in charge of his/her own portfolio and it to be made easier for them to jump between companies to gain their experience? The colleges could hold a register of approved organisations so that the system is not abused by people wanting cheap labour....


I have met youngsters that have been able to attend and pass the first year of college but unable to progress further because they cannot find companies interested in taking them on. How can this be so with the skills crisis? I presume the bureaucracy is putting off the SME's.


I would guess that other industries have similar issues?
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    In the U.K. many young people have things too easy. They are spolied and do not have to apply themselves to study or working in this modern, materialistic, safe society. Try getting them to take out the rubbish , cut the lawn or wash the car for example. Things could be so much better. They just do not know how fortunate they are. Some of course are different, and want to progress with their studies. Parents that encourage their children to learn and research and seek knowledge and understanding are to be applauded. Some young people are discouraged from progressing because they see no future for themselves, citing the impossibility of buying their own homes because of the high prices as one example, and they say "why should we bother". 


    C.
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    The solutions proposed to juvenile delinquency in my youth included “bring back the birch” (a form corporal punishment) and “bring back national service”. With members of the older generation chuntering on about long haired layabouts, beatniks etc.  Many of these youngsters ended up being highly successful in life, but not necessarily in “square middle-class” chartered professions. Richard Branson left school at 16 although he was relatively posh and able to accumulate “social capital”.  


    I would be warm to the idea of some form of National Service, although it doesn’t have to be militaristic. However if young people lack motivation, then it is the responsibility of the older generation to fix this, not just to whinge. I remember reading this book  some decades ago https://www.lrb.co.uk/v05/n19/dg-wright/great-tradition  . Although my sympathies are more Billy (William Ambrose) Wright than D G Wright the reviewer


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    These are the messages teenagers commonly hear in the UK at present (based on my experience in volunteering in schools and from raising two of my own):
    • You must get a high level qualification (degree or better) or you won't get a job (untrue).

    • If you do get a job it won't be for life, you will need to keep constantly "selling" yourself to get new jobs (sadly true).

    • It is all up to you, if you fail it is nobody's fault but your own. No one's going to help you. (Hmmm....)


    Given those messages it's not going to be surprising if many just give up. The teenager who says "there's no point me trying anything, I'm just useless" is far too depressingly common in the UK, and incredibly hard to break through. Some of the messages above will only serve to reinforce this idea in their heads. 


    There's not much we - the engineering profession - can do about the middle point above, although we can offer far more in, for example, independent advice on CV writing and interview skills, and indeed general career development skills.


    The first and last we definitely need to help more with. The great thing about engineering, compared to any other profession, is that there are so many routes into it, and we need to be shouting about this far more. And for the last one, I believe that the "Professional Home For Life" should be about far more than just getting more professional registrants, it should be genuinely supporting "engineers" from their schooldays through to retirement. We have a huge network of potential mentors to help people through tough times and tough decisions, if only we can effectively put them in touch with those who need them.


    Having been brought up in pretty rough north London schools in the '60s and '70s I don't believe that children today are any lazier than they ever were. (The main goals for most at my secondary school were "bunking off" at any opportunity and then finding a job where "you could sit on your a*** all day". In fact I doubt this attitude has ever changed throughout the whole history of human society.) But children today are in a far more stressful situation than we were. I'm impressed that so many are as proactive as they are.


    Andy
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    By coincidence this just came my way 

    http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Interviews/male-muddy-and-manual-?utm_source=Rail%20Technology%20Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10025613_2018%20RTM%20NEWSLETTER%20Nov%2018%20wk%202&dm_i=IJS,5YVT9,A0S73W,NDV9V,1
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    The link is interesting. We can't all work behind a desk though. Somebody has to go out in the field, sometimes literally, and repair overhead power lines or repair damaged rail tracks in the cold and rain. So hands on maintenance workers often are male, muddy and sweaty at work, this does not preclude females from undertaking the same work if they wish. Many maintenance people are highly skilled, just look at B.T. engineers sorting out hundreds of different coloured wires in a hole in the pavement. Not glamorous but still skilled essential work. I visited a university today that has a student number or 14,000. They can't all be dry warm engineers in a lovely office sitting in front of a computer. Many will be out in the field working and getting muddy. So what? It is no disgrace to get dirty at work. Look at oil rig off shore workers. Highly skilled and doing a very dangerous job, and it ain't clean. Where there's muck there's brass as the Yorkshiremen say. Multi skilling is the key to future employment security. The more we can do the more we will be needed.


    C.
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    Schools are constantly having to pick up the pieces of failed parenting nowadays.
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    Andy,


    Thanks for the link which led me to The National Citizen Service, I recall that there was government initiative established during David Cameron’s prime ministership, but it had slipped below my radar. This is clearly something positive, but to be successful such initiatives have to make a real difference over the longer-term.  The NCS initiative seems to be a one-week “summer camp”, with an optional “community project” of up to three weeks more, with only 12% of those potentially eligible participating.  I would certainly hope that those participating develop additional skills, attributes and perhaps some social capital.


    Apparently; Research carried out in the spring of 2017 indicated that; affluent individuals are less likely to attend university if they take part in NCS, while poorer individuals are more likely to do so. At that time the cost per participant of NCS was £1,863. So it seems to be doing something? Whether this is any more useful than the YOPS (Youth Opportunities Programme) or the successor YTS (Youth Training Scheme) programmes introduced to help manage youth unemployment from 1978, I don’t know?


    When I was an apprentice our company organised a one-week residential outward bound course in the Lake District , but this was a minor element of the investment that went into the training, with a company training centre (built at a cost of £2 million + in today’s prices with a staff of 25), college/polytechnic fees etc. All the major nationalised and large private employers had something similar, although ours was among the best. These are descendants  https://www.uniper-engineeringacademy.com/ .  https://www.rweukjobs.com/generation-engineering-technician There are other examples, but our national capability for vocational skills training has diminished.  An excellent example of an employer college relationship is given here https://www.lcb.ac.uk/employer-services/ng-bailey-case-study/  but note; NG Bailey previously had their own in-house training academy, but changes to both legislation and the way training is funded made out-sourcing a more preferable and cost-effective option. The armed forces have retained their own high quality training establishments (although operation is also outsourced) used by some employers like Network Rail/HMS Sultan. https://www.networkrail.co.uk/network-rail-apprentice/


    Clive,


    I like your latest post. This forum is hosted by the IET, the largest member of the UK community of Professional Engineering Institutions. We are affiliated to Engineering Council, with connections to Engineering UK. The Royal Academy of Engineering, with organisations like The Engineering Professors Council  and others being influential.  The IET (through its IIE heritage) has been active in the apprenticeship landscape, with ICE and IMechE now also joining in, but many within the community of professional engineering have been enthusiastic propagators of snobbery. Much of it is simply social in nature, but it also manifests in forms much closer to home, such as the assumption that by virtue of their initial education some engineers are presumed to be “higher” and more competent, than someone trained at length with a more vocational emphasis.


    I have repeatedly condemned in the strongest terms this snobbery, as have many others http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/stigma-against-apprenticeships-must-end-says-network-rail-boss . However, in our (those who control the engineering profession) desire to divide ourselves into the “best and the rest”, academic models like Bloom’s Taxonomy have been applied to the vocational practice of engineering and technology. In some respects there is a fit, but often practical intelligence applied in a context (“know how”) is more productive and valuable, than conceptual or analytical thinking (theory knowledge). The time value of experiential learning (often dismissed as “time serving”) may be an equally valid factor in determining competence.  I won’t pursue the debate here, but it is an obvious truth that different people have different aptitudes, motivations and capabilities, that evolve in different ways and which tend to optimise them for certain types of technical work.  “Horses for courses” if you like.


    I drive a computer in a comfortable office now, but was trying to keep the national electricity grid going in the winter of 1982, climbing up 400kv switchgear to clear ice etc. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-38584354    

    In a sense, I understand your feeling that successive generations have become “softer”, as have I, since my Grandfather served on The Western Front and My Father at Monte Casino, whereas a clipboard and pen was my preferred weapon (probably more useful than early versions of the SA80 especially for left-handerswink). Perhaps the “snowflake” jibe has some foundation?  However, what clever often university developed engineers have done, is to replace much of what was dull, repetitive, dirty and dangerous with safer, faster and cleaner alternatives like robots.  Earlier generations had already swiped most of the obvious stuff like bridges, electricity, trains, planes and spacecraft, but their achievements in our “information age”, have been no less remarkable. I take my (hardwink) hat off to them!

    Your conclusion Multi-skilling is the key to future employment security. The more we can do the more we will be needed  Is a very valid one.  It is one of the reasons that I have strongly supported both further and higher education, but also strongly criticised, some of the negative effects of education policies over recent decades.  I think that we have to be careful about “rose-tinted spectacles”.  Those of a more academic persuasion may argue that fundamental maths and science are the most important foundations of adaptability, whereas those from a more vocational perspective will point to practical initiative and inventiveness.  I find it something of a paradox that we have expended much effort over recent years dividing engineers on the basis of “creativity and innovation” (superior) versus “established good practice” (lesser), when those claiming the former are often the most change resistant. In my opinion most engineers and technicians are capable of demonstrating the attributes expected of graduate, although they don’t all get there in the same way at the same speed. Our traditional model prefers to stick them in silos from early teens , mainly through mathematics and later by discipline, department etc.  I came across a job advert in E&T news recently using the term “T-shaped person” since this wasn’t part of my lexicon, I had to look it up  https://trydesignlab.com/blog/how-to-get-hired-understand-if-youre-an-i-t-or-x-s/         

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    Clive Brittain:

     Multi skilling is the key to future employment security. The more we can do the more we will be needed.




    There is a danger that one could be jack of all trades and master at none. It might be easier to get a job position if you are a jack of all trades compared to somebody who's skills are more specialised but it will most likely be a junior position whereas a more specialised person could access higher level jobs albeit in their area of speciality. The problem is that more highly skilled and knowledgeable people tend to be specialists in a few things rather than experts at everything.






     

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