2021 Skills and demand in industry - report
We carry out an annual skills survey of engineering employers in the UK. In 2021 we focused on the current skills challenges employers are facing, identify barriers to building the supply of the needed skills and the skills that will be needed in the future.
We worked with YouGov to develop a survey, which was delivered to senior decision-makers in engineering businesses through an online mode. The fieldwork was conducted online between 6 August and 2 September 2021. All of the business professionals who responded were drawn from the YouGov panel of over 1.8m people in the UK. In total 1,039 respondents from engineering employers completed the survey.
This report breaks down the results of our survey into five categories, exploring the impacts of Covid-19 and Brexit, skills shortages, recruitment difficulties, sustainability strategies, and new entrants to the workforce. We have also included key recommendations to ensure that current and future workforce needs are met.
The results of this survey suggest that businesses are recovering from the uncertainty of last year. However, there is also a cautionary note in that engineering employers should be conscious of the skills they will need in the near future, building resilience and preparedness into their current strategies.
