21st Century Brain Drain

Earlier in June, General Electric (GE) released a report which made sobering reading for anyone who is concerned about the future of this country's economy (read: everyone).

Earlier in June, General Electric (GE) released a report which made sobering reading for anyone who is concerned about the future of this country's economy (read: everyone).

The report claimed that the UK is in danger of losing its competitiveness in the engineering sector and, as a result, experiencing a brain drain of young engineers to countries which are seen as more welcoming, such as the USA, Germany or China.

For the country of Isambard Kingdom Brunel this should be a worrying thought indeed.

The brain drain - or human capital flight, if your brain works in a different way - is not a new phenomenon. In fact, when the Huguenots left France in the 17th century it constituted a brain drain.

But this does not mean that we should sit back and take it on the chin. One of the most worrying revelations in GE's report was that more than half (56%) of engineering lecturers and four in 10 engineering students think the UK is less ambitious than the rest of the world. Ouch. So what is to be done?

A quick fix is unlikely to be around the corner. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) recently revealed that the UK labour market has šdeep-seated structural problems'. It is unlikely that economic growth alone will cure them. These problems include high public sector dependency, pockets of long-term unemployment or inactivity and a serious skills shortage. These are problems which no longer obey the geographic boundaries of old. Gone is the north-south divide, this is a problem which faces the whole country.

People frequently complain that we no longer šmake things' in this country. Well, this is and isn't true. Yes, the UK is no longer an industrial country and most of the things in your home will probably come from abroad. On the other hand, companies such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota make their cars here. And Germany's BMW still produces Minis from the old Morris plant in Oxford. And staying with the car theme, there are a glut of small home-grown companies such as Noble, TVR and Ascari.

The truth of the matter is that, by 2017, 56% more jobs will require graduate-level qualifications. By the same date only 12% will require no qualifications whatsoever.

Jobs that were once the domain of school-leavers - like journalism, for example - are now the habitat of those with one, or even two, degrees.

We need to embrace our status as an advanced engineering and service economy. This might even mean forgiving the bankers that did more than Marx could ever have hoped to do to further the cause of international socialism. What this means is giving our younglings the skills they need to confront the modern world from the comfort of Britain - which we don't do - and making this country a welcome one for business
- which we are attempting to do.

The fact is that if we want to start making things again, someone is going to have to do the planning. Any volunteers?

Have your say email TheTIG@eriks.co.uk