The regions engineering employers need to take action

Advanced Selection, the contingency recruitment business of the Guildsrealm Group, voices concern for the regions workforce as engineers show reluctance to change jobs.

Engineering skills are in great demand across the region and the company has observed a worrying decline in the number of engineers willing to change jobs and boost the available workforce. This is worsened by employersí reluctance to recruit graduates and develop them through fast track training schemes.

Engineering has experienced enormous structural change over the last few decades and with the CBI announcing the loss of 1 million manufacturing jobs since 1997, the industry is now much ëleaner but fitterí. But this level of change brings a degree of uncertainty and engineers are in search of job security and are staying put once they find it.

These trends are of strategic importance for the region and there are no quick fixes ñ but employers need to take action today. The engineering skills crisis has been an issue for some time and will only get worse without a long-term commitment to take action.

Engineering graduate and Managing Director of Advanced Selection, Andy Hughes, comments: ìThere is a shortage of skilled engineers with the majority of job vacancies requiring a higher level of skills than is currently available. There are significant implications of having critical roles unfilled and so we are encouraging employers to be more open-minded and proactive in their recruitment activities.î

Employers need to promote engineering as a promising and rewarding career within their organisation and be more open to recruiting and developing graduates. These young engineers are enthusiastic with good learning capabilities and look for challenging assignments to get professional satisfaction.

Engineers are typically employed on the basis of their technical abilities matching the specification and other important factors are being overlooked. In addition to a technical grounding, it is important that a candidate has the right personal competencies to fit with the culture and direction of the company, blend with other members of the team and bring a learning attitude to a role.

ìEmployers often overlook the importance of these characteristics and make costly hiring mistakes. There are candidates out there with the potential to outperform those that may better meet the technical specification. If employers invest in developing new recruits to meet the demands of a role, they not only nurture high calibre engineers in a short period of time, but they will make their vital contribution to regenerating the pool of skilled labour,î adds Andy.

Advanced Selection works closely with many employers in the region to recruit engineering staff. By working collaboratively with hiring managers, the company gets to the heart of its clients requirements and is able to provide intelligent and practical guidance to help fill engineering resource gaps.

Advanced Selection was established in early 2004 and provides a contingency recruitment service across all functions within engineering, electronics, technology, manufacturing, supply chain and telco businesses across the region.