Keith Tocher: Expanding Scotland's engineering talent

The adage that you should fix the roof while the sun shines has surely never been more relevant for the engineering industry.

Scotland needs to tackle its engineering skills shortage, says Eden Scott's Keith Tocher. Picture: John Devlin

According to a recent Scottish Engineering review, the sector enjoyed yet another positive quarter. Orders were up 36 per cent for the UK and 41 per cent for exports. Overall optimism among engineering business leaders is also up. Key areas of growth among these positive headline figures in Scotland were in electronics, design engineering and photonics.

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This is a trend we have seen developing in our business over recent years as the economy has shifted focus from traditional engineering in response to the oil and gas crash and the growing importance of SMEs to Scotland. 

The problem is, while the industry has survived by, as Scottish Engineering put it, “gritting their teeth”, there is now a perceived skills shortage in the industry. A recent report by Technology Scotland highlighted that more than 60 per cent of companies felt they had an internal skills gap and 74 per cent of those felt they were lacking the technical capabilities to compete. Unfortunately, the key disciplines reported as having the greatest shortages were areas such as electronic, photonics, software design engineers.

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We have supported a number of exciting companies to find the right talent in each of these areas but it is certainly not an easy task. The feedback from our clients is that the skill level at graduate and middle management level is not at the right standard.

The feeling is there is a disconnect between education and industry which means there aren’t enough high quality entrants to university or graduates leaving with the skills needed to add value to the business.

The first problem is that there is a shortage of teachers for the STEM subjects. A number of councils across Scotland raised this issue only last month. There is also a perceived lack of understanding as to the potential careers available for young people through engineering, which is leading to them pursuing other directions. This in turn has resulted in a significant shortage in applications to university, courses being cancelled and a dramatic reduction in the talent pool.

Add to the mix the uncertainly over Brexit, and the fact that Europe is our third-largest provider of engineers, which we are noticing is having an impact, and there is a real issue.

While these problems aren’t new, it is vital that the support needed to close this education gap is forthcoming. Our years of experience in engineering across many different sectors mean we are working with the best on the market but from our point of view and that of our clients it will always help to have a bigger pool of talent to choose from.

• Keith Tocher is divisional manager, manufacturing, science and technology, with Eden Scott

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