Vince Cable calls for a 'decade of engineering'

Business secretary determined to see an end to skills shortages afflicting the profession

Business secretary Vince Cable wants to see political rivalries put aside to ensure that an emphasis is placed on creating a “decade of engineering” in the UK that will help to alleviate skills shortages.

Speaking to an audience of several hundred EEF members at a manufacturing event in London earlier this week, Cable talked at length about the need to ensure that enough young people wanted to become engineers.

He said: “We need a pipeline of engineers. With a concerted effort from all sides, a decade of engineering can help solve the problem [of skills shortages].”

Cable said that he was particularly concerned by how few women were attracted to careers in engineering. He said that only one in ten professional engineers were women, claiming that the gender imbalance was the worst in the European Union.

He said that too many young people made subject choices that excluded them from pursuing a career in engineering, adding that he was “horrified” to learn that in half of all state schools, not a single girl was studying physics A level.

Cable said that the government was determined to help tackle the problem of skill shortages in engineering. He said that bursaries had been made available to fund maths and physics teaching; a STEM Ambassadors programme was delivering concrete results; an initiative had been set up to fund 500 masters-level degrees in aerospace; and that the formation of a talent retention scheme – a national web-based system which helps match skilled employees facing redundancy to companies who are recruiting – had proved successful.

“Engineering is about the future, it is not about history,” he concluded.