07 July 2009
Take electronics seriously
Over the last few years, it has become harder for graduates to find a job once they leave university. There's a number of reasons for this, primarily the number of people now following degree courses. By definition, more graduates will mean more competition, unless the number of graduate vacancies increases in proportion.
But there are now 48 graduates chasing every graduate opening in the UK, which suggests something is seriously out of alignment. Why are we educating graduates to take lower level jobs and how are they expected to pay back their loans if they are reduced to stacking shelves at the local supermarket?
The current economic climate is partly a contributory factor. Graduate recruiters are cutting back on the numbers they take on: the engineering sector, for one, has cut the number of graduate opportunities by 40% this year.
We welcome the ability for anyone to follow a university course, should they be able to afford it: there's nothing wrong with broadening one's education.
But the Government keeps telling us the UK needs to develop a 'knowledge based economy' if it is to compete globally in the future and this will require suitably qualified graduates.
This knowledge based economy must include manufacturing and design – the UK's economy cannot exist on providing services alone. And this is the problem. The UK's economy needs reasonable numbers of graduates who can support manufacturing and design in the future. In large, today's graduates are not matching that profile.
When it comes to electronics, the trend is for fewer and fewer people to graduate with electronics related qualifications and for many of these to take employment in other sectors. Even fewer are signing up for electronics related courses in the first place.
There's a lot to be proud of in UK electronics – the UK is a global design resource, home to one third of all European design houses and headquarters for several world leading companies – but the dwindling supply of electronics graduates puts that at risk. Already, the median age of an electronics engineer is around 55 and each retirement party for an electronics engineer is another toll of the bell.
The UK should take electronics seriously – electronics is a pervasive enabling technology – and it should also take seriously the matter of convincing school students to become electronic engineers, rather than graduates in subjects which lead to less fulfilling careers.
Author
Graham Pitcher
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