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January 2023 - Engineering

Productivity impacted by skills gap when it comes to adapting to new equipment or IT skills: A survey of engineering employers has revealed insight into how the skills gap is affecting the sector. 

The latest IET Skills for a Digital Future Survey was conducted during Autumn 2022 and polled 1,235 senior decision-makers in engineering employers.

When asked about the impact of the skills gaps when it comes to adapting to new equipment or IT skills internally, almost half the respondents polled said it 'reduces productivity', while 36% said it makes it 'more difficult to recruit the staff they need'. Thirty-five percent said the skills gaps is restricting company growth when it comes to adapting to new equipment or IT skills, while the same percentage said it 'makes it harder to innovate'.

Other areas impacted by the skills gap in adapting to new equipment or IT skills included 'increased training costs' (32%), ‘reduced ability to deliver contracts' (29%), 'reduces profitability' (27%), 'increases staff costs' (25%) and 'increases recruitment costs' (23%).

The survey also revealed the organisations that respondents believe to be best placed to deliver training on technical skills, with 59% of respondents saying training would be best delivered in-house. Fifty-three percent said that professional training bodies would be best, while around a third said further education institutions such a colleges (32%), and higher education institutions such as universities (29%).

Technologies

The research also asked respondents about the technologies currently understood by their organisations, compared with those that they are likely to understand in five years. It highlighted that while a third of respondents (33%) currently understand machine learning, this is expected to rise to 39% within five years. Around a quarter said artificial intelligence (AI) is currently understood (24%) with the expectation for understanding to rise to 36% in the next half decade, while ‘extended reality’ understanding is expected to grow from 14% to 22%. Quantum engineering/computing is also expected to rise from 14% to 22%.

Other areas cited included ‘distributed ledger technology’ (10% vs 16%), and ‘The Metaverse’ (9% vs 19%)

Cloud computing saw a fall in understanding from 44% today to 43% in five years' time, while business level data security and privacy saw a fall from 41% to 37%.

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