Or is it?…..
‘The state of the Nation’ just doesn’t happen overnight. It takes decades of disinvestment and significant changes in the values, norms, and behaviours that define our process industries and the people who work in them.
I’ve just read through a recent sectoral census report released by ECITB that firmly outlines the statistics throughout our UK process industries. This very thorough report provides a sectoral breakdown of the Engineering Construction Industry (ECI) 2024 Census data.
The data, collected in May and June 2024, offers a snapshot of the industry and its 94,680 workers, highlighting the specific characteristics and challenges of each sector. Geographical distribution, occupational breakdowns, recruitment difficulties and business opportunities are detailed across twelve sectoral sections.
We are all aware of the challenges faced across all industry sectors relating to the ‘skills gap’ and for me, the figures within this report just emphasise and reaffirm the problems we have relating to the age profile across industry.
Take the oil and gas, chemicals and food/drinks sector for example; Age demographics present a challenge, where 41–42% of workers are aged 50 or older. Oil and gas is especially concerning, with only 12% of its workforce under 30 – the lowest share across all sectors in this study.
When you try and digest all the issues being faced it really does open up a Pandora’s box; how do we attract young people into engineering? (let alone our process industries), how can we effectively support the existing industries let alone find enough skilled and competent people to build our hydrogen network and deal with our carbon capture projects (possibly the biggest change since the industrial revolution) and what of the apprentices? – the future engineers and skilled craftsmen and women….where are they?
There may well be some chinks of positive light appearing in the darkness – but it’s not enough. We desperately need some serious collaborative dialogue; from UK Government and devolved Governments, through to institutions, academia and representatives of industry – and we need it now.
NOW!
Here’s a link to the ECITB report: https://lnkd.in/efZTpDGE
