Thales supports call for united action to address engineering skills shortage in the UK

The Engineering UK 2015: The State of Engineering report shows that engineering accounts for a quarter of UK turnover, and has grown by 9% since the recession began. However the sector will need 182,000 people with engineering skills, each year until 2022, to meet the projected demand – and the sector is currently seeing an annual shortfall of 55,000.

To meet the demand, the number of engineering graduates and apprentices will need to double. At stake is a potential £27 billion per year for the UK economy, and it is for this reason that EngineeringUK is recommending a range of measures to encourage engineering as a career choice for young people in the UK, and to support them in choosing Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects at school and university.

“STEM skills are lifeblood of Thales,” said Victor Chavez CBE, chief executive of Thales UK and a member of EngineeringUK’s board. “We employ an incredibly diverse range of scientists and engineers: laser physicists, material scientists, acoustic engineers, Big Data analysts, cybersecurity experts, electrical, mechanical, software and systems engineers and many more. We have a highly-skilled workforce, and it is vital that we have access to a good stream of apprentices and graduates.

“We are proud of our best-in-class graduate recruitment programme. We always meet our annual requirement for graduates, but it is becoming harder; these are intelligent and motivated young people and they have a choice over the direction they pursue. Thales and many companies like us need more students in the UK to chose to study STEM subjects at A level and for their degrees.

“So we must do our bit to stimulate the STEM pipeline. Many of Thales’s sites in the UK have good connections to local schools, working with teachers to provide their students with an insight into the fantastic opportunities that engineering offers. This kind of outreach is just one of EngineeringUK’s recommendations, and I fully support their work to bring together the various stakeholders to ensure that Britain can remain great at science, engineering and advanced manufacturing”.

Thales UK is also a member of the 5% Club, whose members have committed to ensuring that 5% of their workforce are apprentices, graduates or sponsored students on structured development programmes. The company also works closely with joint government-industry bodies such as the Defence Growth Partnership, which has announced a series of initiatives to nurture key engineering skills for the UK defence sector.