Can apprenticeships address the UK’s STEM skills gap?
Deemed to be a national crisis by some industry experts and costing the UK economy £1.5 billion a year according to a report published in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the shortages of workers in STEM sectors are a significant point of concern. But could improving and developing STEM apprenticeships be the solution?
Apprenticeships are rocketing as a recruitment option for most UK industries. But perhaps due to their focus on offering hands-on and practical learning processes, apprenticeship programmes are ideally suited to STEM — science, technology, engineering, and maths — sectors.
Alongside high voltage coil manufacturer, Houghton International, we’ll explore the statistics behind this nationwide problem and look at how employers, organisations and the government can boost STEM apprenticeship enrolments and reduce the pressure on these industries’ workforces.
The scale of the STEM skills gap
So just how problematic is the STEM skills gap at present — and how much worse could it become in the future if not remedied? According to a response by the Royal Academy of Engineering, more than half of engineering companies say they have had problems recruiting the experienced engineers they need.
This demand for skilled and experienced engineers is set to increase considerably, with 1.8 million new engineers and technicians needed by 2025. But what is causing this gap?
STEM businesses suffer greatly from an aging workforce. As skilled and experienced engineers retire, it is increasing vacancies across thousands of engineering roles. Putting a more exact figure on this is EngineeringUK, which — through detailed analysis — has determined that there are annually 29,000 too few workers with level 3 skills and an even greater shortage of more qualified engineers — 40,000 of those with level 4 and above skills.
With a skills shortage already evident, businesses have another worry to consider — Brexit. As uncertainty remains, the UK’s exit from the European Union could create an even bigger headache for those in STEM sectors.
A key action point for businesses hoping to close the STEM gap is to encourage more diversity. In 2018, only 12.37% of the UK’s engineering work force were female. STEM companies have roles to fill — so could apprenticeships be the answer?
Apprenticeships in the UK
In the past, you left school and got a job. Nowadays, students have a wealth of opportunities to choose from, whether it’s A-levels, BTECs or apprenticeships — and the latter is growing in popularity.
Since 2010, over four million people have started an apprenticeship, with 814,800 participating in 2017/18. While this number is anticipated to slightly drop this year, apprenticeships offer workers the chance for on-the-job training. Each month, an average of 23,000 apprenticeship opportunities are listed on the government’s Find an Apprenticeship site, while organisations — such as WISE, which campaigns for gender balance in science, technology and engineering — are continually driving initiatives to help grow the number of apprentices in these sectors.
Rod Kenyon, former director of the Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network, once said: “The traditional recruitment pool is diminishing at the same time as work-based learning routes are facing increasing competition from alternative post-16-year-old provision. Employers wishing to attract quality applicants in sufficient numbers to meet their skills requirements have to look beyond their traditional sources.”
But are STEM employers simply not focusing on demographics that could significantly reduce their skills gaps? Overall, women account for 50% of all apprentices in the UK. However, for STEM apprenticeships, they make up just 8%. Evidently, women are opting for apprenticeships in different fields, which means that STEM industries are missing out on thousands of potential workers if they don’t try to make their apprenticeship programmes as attractive to women apprentices as they clearly are to men.
How to improve STEM apprenticeships and reduce the skills gap
The government had originally aimed to achieve three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 and, while this target may have been dropped, has this plan helped to introduce new programmes like these in all sectors, including engineering? Possibly, but more work must be done to hit this lofty figure.
Apprenticeships in STEM industries must be advocated and discussed in schools in order to instil a sense of enthusiasm from a younger age. Career advisors should make it clearer to kids that a university degree is not the only avenue to success and that the same level of fulfilment and opportunity is available with STEM apprenticeship programmes. Perhaps this means a stronger relationship between STEM firms and educational establishments, which can grant more opportunities for schoolchildren to get first-hand experience of how these companies work in practice prior to having to make an official decision.
Already, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) offers around £1 million in prizes, scholarships and awards — including the Apprentice of the Year Award — to recognise successful people in its industry, which acts as a great incentive for young workers to enter the sector.
Hopefully, positive initiatives like the IET’s will help encourage participation in STEM apprentices and ease the pressure on these sectors’ skills gap before it’s too late.
https://www.ft.com/content/ec290214-af59-11e7-aab9-abaa44b1e130
https://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/responses/closing-the-stem-skills-gap
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/stem-skills-and-space-industry
https://www.wes.org.uk/content/wesstatistics
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06113/SN06113.pdf
https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/government-appears-to-drop-3-million-apprenticeships-target/