Maritime and Offshore Oil and Gas Skills Gap Highlighted
Ways of coming to terms with, and mitigating the present and future skills gaps in the UK’s vitally important maritime and offshore oil and gas industry lie at the heart of a new report published by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) and engineering recruitment agency, Matchtech.
With 16 key recommendations, the report is a call to arms for all sections of the industry - professional bodies, the engineering community, the maritime and offshore oil and gas community, university faculties, HE providers, training providers, the media - and government.
The report 'Mitigating the skills gap in the maritime and offshore oil and gas market' (available at http://www.imarest.org/skillsgap) discusses the findings following a roundtable of key industry stakeholders (listed in the report) involved within the maritime and offshore oil and gas industries on the engineering skills gap within the UK, and draws on the results of a survey of 500 companies actively involved in the sectors including naval and defence, commercial, leisure, shipping and offshore sectors together with academia.
The report is set against the background of estimates that the wider maritime-related economy generates around £46bn of UK GDP, provides 890,000 jobs, accounts for approximately 3% of the global maritime-related market of £2 trillion; and that total sales stand at £7.6bn a year, contributing £3.1bn to UK GDP and employs 105,000 in the design, build, manufacture and support of vessels.
In addition to its table of 16 firm recommendations, the 32-page report has insightful sections devoted to 'The big picture'; 'A startling perspective'; 'Women in engineering'; 'Professional development'; 'Graduates'; Industry roundtable findings and recommendations' citing six particular areas:-
* Engineering as a career - 'Engineering a dirty word? We need to change the UK's perception
* UK maritime and offshore oil and gas as a 'brand' - 'The percentage of 'air time' that engineering receives in UK media is often far less than the more represented sections of engineering such as motorsport and aerospace'
* Schools - "The UK's future competitiveness in the global engineering space hinges on its continued ability to produce the best talent"
* Education and skills progression - "We need to fund stage not age"
* Women in engineering - "The level of female engineers in the UK is the lowest in Europe - for an industry with such a skills gap this makes no sense at all"
* The role of professional development - "Professional development creates recognised engineers, who become better at their jobs and make industry more profit"
and conclusions -
* "We do it better together"
* To demonstrate the importance and size of the skills gap, encourage joined up thinking and make recommendations on how the industry can sustain its future growth
* Without intervention the growth potential of UK maritime and offshore has an uncertain future
* 91% of respondents believe that a skills gap will adversely affect their business over the next 12 months
"Publishing the report is only the first stage of our involvement in this all-important and on-going challenge," says David Loosely, IMarEST's Chief Executive. "Now we need to use the findings to galvanise all concerned to take on board the recommendations, and act! The IMarEST will be hosting the Skills Group which falls under the Marine Industries Leadership Council and will see a number of the items in the report to be discussed on how best to address the issue. The first meeting is set to take place in early April."
As well as hosting the Skills Group, the IMarEST is developing an early careers strategy to support the promotion of the marine sector. This includes organising the second European International Submarine Races in partnership with QinetiQ. Being held from the 7th-11th July 2014 the week-long event is set to inspire students about the marine sector and to engage industry with academia, whilst providing a platform to build on the recommendations made in the report by promoting the sector as being exciting, full of opportunity - and fun.
Further information on the human-powered submarine races is at http://www.subrace.eu;
Careers day at Oceanology International is at http://www.oceanologyinternational.com/Visiting/Careers-Day/
and information on careers is at http://www.imarest.org/GrowWithUs/MaritimeJobs
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