Skills strategy

You will see, on other pages on the New Electronics website, news about some of the initiatives that have been launched. But the headline figure, if you want to look at it that way, was produced by SEMTA's Darren Race, who claimed that the UK's electronics industry will need 17,400 engineers by 2014. "Industry," he said, "needs a bigger and higher quality pool of talent." With the current absence of magic wands, producing 17,400 additional engineers could prove challenging. But an interesting question was asked during the debate by EKTN chairman David Kynaston. "How much business is being left on the table because of the UK's skills shortages?" he asked. And, not surprisingly, there wasn't an answer, mainly because – during all the debate about skills – that question does not appear to have been asked. Why did he ask that question? Because it has critical importance to the way in which the skills debate proceeds. If there is a lot of business lost, it reinforces the view that the UK doesn't have the necessary design skills – and that tells us where the effort has to be focused. In the past, much of the focus has been at the technician level. But there is no point in expending effort and money in creating a support infrastructure if the designs are not there to manufacture.