A TALENT mismatch is hampering economic recovery because of a shortage of skilled labour to fill posts in key infrastructure projects, a leading employment agency has claimed.
Hays claims that for some engineering, construction and IT projects, it is having to look to Ireland and other European countries for applicants to fill jobs.
The new Queensferry Crossing, Edinburgh Trams and offshore and onshore renewables projects are said to be generating significant employment in engineering and IT, but it is claimed Scotland and the rest of the UK is suffering among the worst skills gaps in Europe.
The Hays Global Skill Index 2013 claims that, despite the economy coming out of recovery and job opportunities being created, there are still areas where skills are unavailable.
However, the Scottish Government claimed last night "impressive progress" was being made in the area and said youth employment levels were eighth out of 28 EU countries.
The company's report, The Great Skills Mismatch, claims the only countries in Europe facing a greater talent mismatch than the UK are economies badly affected by the eurozone crisis such as Spain, Portugal and Ireland.
Produced in collaboration with Oxford economists, the index is based on an analysis of employment markets across 30 major global economies and highlights the extent to which businesses and governments have to work together to build the right skills pipeline for sustainable recovery and growth.
Hays in Scotland recently reported growth in excess of 10% in its business the past 12 months, which is driven to a great extent by major infrastructure projects, but it said finding skilled talent to deliver the projects was proving a challenge.
"Other major engineering projects under way currently in Scotland are the Scottish schools refurbishment programme and the Beauly-Denny overhead line upgrade," said Darren Montagu, managing director for Hays in Scotland. "So engineering, construction and IT are very much the pinch points for this talent mismatch in Scotland. In fact, in some cases we are even having to look to Ireland and the continent for the skilled professionals we need."
According to Hays, the oil and gas industry is also showing no decline in the constant demand for experienced mechanical and electrical design engineers, with drilling, geosciences, structural integrity and technical safety inspection particularly difficult to resource for.
Mr Montagu said: "It's heartening to know there are so many opportunities in Scotland currently, but there's a real need for more action from both the Government and the business community to address these ongoing skills shortages.
He added: "In the long term, education policy must be aligned far more closely with the needs of businesses.
"This also means motivating students towards the education levels required to meet the demands of industry, easing the transition for students into employment and ensuring that the widest possible group of skilled workers, across all generations, are participating in the labour market."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "We work closely with industry to identify the current and future skills needs in our key economic sectors. We are currently developing skills investment plans in specific areas such as energy, ICT and engineering to provide young people with opportunities to study and train and be the next generation of Scotland's skilled workforce."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article