How businesses can begin to bridge the skills gap

TheBusinessDesk.com, in association with Grant Thornton and South and City College, held a panel discussion to debate the issues and to highlight actions businesses should take to address their own skills gaps.

Tying in with National Apprenticeship Week this week, the event brought together business owners, advisers and education seeking solutions and examples of best practice.

James Sopwith from engineering group ADI faces the challenge of needing 500 more employees by 2020 while there is “a massive skills shortage in hands-on skills”.  

ADI has an established schools programme, and he believes that it is never too early to start inspiring young people to want careers in industry.

“We need 500 additional employees and they are going to be hands-on electrical and mechanical engineers, people such as welders, fabricators, electricians.

“Our biggest challenge is they don’t exist or they are very difficult to come across. There is a whole raft of different ways where those individuals come from, but our view is by 16 it is too late.

“We need to be inspiring children into the world of work – and in my case into the world of engineering – much earlier.”

Grant Thornton’s Mike Herdman believes the challenges are not restricted to engineering or similar sectors, such as construction, where there is a recognised problem.

“Our skills challenge is actually similar, we need more people in the future,” he said. “There is a skills gap but those skills are changing over time. We need people who are adaptable.

“There is the challenge of getting people interested at an early age but aside from that we have people who are working within the business who need new skills over time and so it’s not just about the young people it’s about people my age still needing to learn new skills.”