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Multi-billion pound capacity and skills shortage will hit East of England the hardest
Written by Ben Fountain   
Thursday, 17 January 2008
An artist's impression of the Felixstowe South Reconfiguration
An artist's impression of the Felixstowe South Reconfiguration
A national skills and capacity shortage is set to hit the East of England harder than almost anywhere else in the UK, according to a report from the Institution of Civil Engineers. ICE’s State of the Nation Report, on Capacity and Skills, highlights how the UK’s "stop/start approach" to planning essential infrastructure projects at a time of rising global demand cost the country £1.8bn in 2007. By 2015, this figure will rise to £8bn if key issues are not addressed, putting essential public works projects in jeopardy, the ICE says.

Dramatic slowdowns followed by hectic periods of activity have created a boom and bust cycle, the ICE says, making it difficult for companies to make long-term investment in skills and innovation. This is a national problem, but the situation in the East of England is more severe than most, according to the organisation.

Predicted growth in the East of England’s construction sector is higher than the national average, but the skills supply is significantly below it.
The region’s already high production levels are set to increase by 9% in the next five years.

There are currently seven major projects worth over £100m underway in the region and a further 55 planned for before 2016, including an upgrade of the A14; a new container terminal at Harwich and more work on the ports at Felixstowe and Shellhaven.
 
And this does not include the possible expansion of Stansted Airport and potential new builds at Sizewell and Bradwell nuclear power stations. These projects, says the ICE, will require highly trained, experienced engineers. The East of England’s construction industry currently employs about a quarter of a million people, a figure expected to rise to nearly a third of a million by 2012. This means the industry will have to employ 11,000 new workers each year, just to keep up with demand.
 
Employers are already finding it difficult to recruit and keep qualified staff. A leading regional civil engineering contractor said: "We are having to decline invitations to tender because if we were successful we would not have adequate appropriately skilled professional staff to deliver the work. Not only is there a problem in recruiting those staff but there is a problem in retaining them, a significant number simply are not good enough and they move on."
 
ICE’s research also highlights that the UK is experiencing a skills ‘crunch’. Nationally, the industry will need up to 12,300 new senior construction professionals to join each year, until 2011, if it is to meet demand for major projects to benefit the public.
 
The report also expresses grave concerns over the decline in the standard of teaching of Maths and Science in recent years on a national level.
 
ICE East of England visits schools to try and raise interest in the sector, but it reports that there is "little joined-up thinking and no outside funding." This creates a situation, whereby by the time they are 14, many young people’s choice of GCSEs could already preclude them from a career in the construction industry, according to the ICE.

Part of the blame also lies at the door of UK Higher Education according to the report. A leading lecturer at an East of England university said: "Point scoring for producing papers of dubious merit and with little relevance to the practice of civil engineering is widening the gap between what the students are learning and what industry wants.

"HEFCE should be encouraged to consider the idea, as guided by the Leitch report, that industry-employer engagement by higher education and further education institutions is more important than the publication of arcane research papers. This is part of problem of higher and further education not matching industry’s needs.

"Would it be appropriate for young doctors to be taught by researchers and medics with minimal experience of medical practice? Government funding for practical training should be made available to the construction industry as readily as it is to the NHS." 
 
 
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