UK needs plumbers, builders and engineers as skill crisis hits economy

Britain is facing its biggest skills shortage for a generation. From plumbers and builders to engineers, there are talent gaps across a range of professions that threaten to derail attempts to re-energise the economy.

The scarcity of skills in key sectors has big repercussions – from projects having to be put on hold to soaring pay for some of those most in demand – such as bricklayers and plumbers.

The construction industry, a key economic driver, has been particularly hard hit. It accounts for about 7% of GDP and a survey by the recruitment consultant Manpower recently revealed that the outlook for the sector was at its strongest level since 2007.

Mark Cahill, managing director of Manpower Group UK, said the upturn presented its own problems. “In London, we have seen the extraordinary statistic that one in three of the largest construction companies is having to turn down bidding opportunities due to a shortage of skilled labour.”

He also noted that the shortage of skilled Britons was so acute that building firms in the capital were hiring Portuguese bricklayers on wages of £1,000 a week – double the normal £500 weekly pay for bricklayers.

The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians, blames the shortage on “a 30-year failure to train apprentices”. In 2013, just 7,280 apprentices completed their training across all trades while Construction Skills, the training body, estimates the industry needs 35,000 new entrants just to stand still – and this figure will grow as the sector continues to recover.

Pimlico Plumbers, one of the biggest plumbing firms in London, has also been forced to take action to plug a yawning skills gap. As a result of a chronic shortage of good plumbers inside the M25, it has launched a national recruitment drive in an attempt to attract talent from outside the capital.

Charlie Mullins, its chief executive, said: “The growth in the economy and the returning spending confidence of businesses and consumers has seen demand for our services soar. But the availability of skilled engineers is heading in the opposite direction.”

Mullins said it presented a great opportunity for experienced plumbers to cash in on their skills: “Our plumbers can earn up to £100,000 a year,” he said.

Analysis by the Royal Academy of Engineering suggests Britain will need more than a million new engineers and technicians by 2020 – which will require a doubling of the current number of annual engineering graduates and apprentices. Without them, any chance of riding on the coat-tails of an infrastructure-led economic revival appears to be wishful thinking.

Philip Greenish, chief executive of the RAE, said there was a skills shortage in all sectors “from transport to high-value manufacturing”. He added: “Only significant investment in higher education will unlock the engineering talent that the UK economy needs to succeed.”

A spokesman for Airbus, which has one of the country’s biggest engineering graduate and apprentice schemes, summed up the predicament. “Britain has not given enough scope or credibility to our engineering prowess. We have allowed it to lapse as we have veered into a service based economy.”

Engineering

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It wasn’t until she took her GCSEs that Abbie Hutty started looking at career options. Her favourite subjects were art and design and technology, but her real strength was in physics and maths.

“I had a few things suggested to me and engineering was one of them,” she says. “My parents didn’t really know what engineering was. But then I saw on the news about the Beagle II mission to Mars, which talked about how British engineers and scientists played a key role. So I thought perhaps I could get to work on some cool, hi-tech things like that.”

Her instincts were correct. The 27-year-old is now working on the ExoMars Rover mission, Europe’s first rover mission to the red planet, and was awarded the title of 2013 young female engineer of the year by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Why aren’t there more people studying engineering? “On the whole, people don’t know what engineering is and so it doesn’t have the prestige that it should,” she says. “As far as most people are concerned, engineers get called out to fix vending machines.”

Hutty also believes better qualified and passionate teachers are needed to spread the word. “I had a very good physics teacher and she recommended I look at engineering as a career,” Hutty says. “I knew nothing about it at first. But she was right.”

Hutty left Weald of Kent grammar school to study mechanical engineering at the University of Surrey, where she specialised in robotics. Her course included a placement year at Surrey Satellite Technology, a small satellite maker.

After completing her masters degree, Hutty was awarded a place on the Airbus defence and space graduate scheme. She reckons a graduate can expect to earn a starting salary of £25,000-£30,000 a year, but the rewards for senior engineers are far more.

Plumbing

James Parkinson didn’t know what career he wanted to pursue when he was at Langley Park secondary school in Beckenham. “School was never my thing really,” he says. After leaving school at 16, Parkinson played football at Bromley FC’s academy. It was only when things didn’t work out on the pitch that he decided to learn a trade.

He has just completed a three-year apprenticeship with Pimlico Plumbers and has been out on his own for the past six months. “It’s probably been the best decision I’ve made.”

It was tough initially because he was earning only £100 a week as a trainee. But after his first year the pay went up a bit. “Now I’m earning the same as any other engineer out there.”

Parkinson reckons he earns between £1,200 and £1,800 a week, “which is crazy for a 21-year-old,” he says. “You could earn more than that if you really wanted to.”

Apprentices at Pimlico attend college for one day a week to learn the theory and the rest of the week are supervised by a senior engineer. “Like most trades, you do most of your learning out on the tools,” he says.

There’s no shortage of work. “London is one of those places where there’s always loads of work,” he says. “We have a few engineers that come from Yorkshire and Cornwall just to work. We’ve had to recruit outside London because there are not enough good plumbers here.”

Parkinson believes schools could help by doing more to promote traditional trades. “Schools are not pushing apprenticeships. None of the teachers have done an apprenticeship and because they didn’t do it themselves they don’t know what an apprenticeship is.”

Construction

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Maria Seabright, finance and HR director of Greendale Construction, says schools need to promote careers in construction. “Schools are still pushing people to go on to do A-levels and go to university,” she says. “Construction is still viewed as an industry for less academic people. It is looked down on in schools.”

Seabright rejects this, saying the Dorset-based contractor recently took on a 16-year-old apprentice carpenter who has 11 GCSEs, the majority of which are grade A and A*.

“His teachers were amazed when he said he wanted to be a carpenter, but he was adamant,” she says. “He has since gone back to his school to give talks about the benefits of learning a trade.”

The finance chief said the apprentice would probably go on to complete a degree, financed by the company, and then progress through the management route at the company. Seabright, who also sits on the Federation of Master Builders’ skills council, blames the credit crunch and recession for the shortage of skilled workers, because companies stopped taking on apprentices.