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According to the Royal Academy of Engineers Wales needs something like an extra 2,500 graduates by 2020 to cope with those leaving due to retirement. |
Again, I just don’t know if this is really the case, given that we know that plenty of engineers are not finding suitable employment.
As soon as you look at the numbers, it is very hard to justify [claims of] a skills shortage
Marcus Body, head of research at Work Communications
Nearly a quarter of UK engineering graduates are working in non-graduate jobs or unskilled work such as waiting and shop work, a report suggests.
Katherine Sellgren (BBC) (2011)
I know I am starting to sound repetitive here, but what is really going on and how can we get to the truth? Do we really need more STEM graduates or not?
Link
Wales needs 2,500 engineers by 2020, professionals says BBC News Wales
I guess it is quite tricky to figure out as the surveys tend not to be specific enough. One issue is that companies often like to find a perfect fit from the get-go (instead of investing into training). As such without the correct specialization and other attributes contributing to “fit” trained engineers may not get hired.
In addition, companies like to have a surplus for any given position as this lowers hiring cost (due to competition among applicants) so the threat or shortage that is reported often incorporates that. E.g. if only 5-10 people are applying for a given job (instead of, say 50-200) the companies could see it as shortage for their purposes.