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Engineering skills shortage 'a problem' for growing JLR

Bosses at Jaguar Land Rover say they are finding it tough to recruit people with the right technical skills.

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JLR has taken on 11,000 people over the last three years, expanding its plants in Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood and building a new engine factory in Wolverhampton that will eventually employ 1,400.

The Government is now pumping money into schemes to improve workforce skills and encourage more young people into engineering, but firms are still struggling to find the right recruits.

Company spokesman Phil Popham admitted the fast growing business was finding it difficult to find the workers they need.

Mr Popham, marketing director at JLR, said: "We spend a tremendous amount of money on training our people. There is generally a shortage of skills, particularly on the engineering side, and we are prominent in our activity around education, trying to inspire people to think about a career in engineering.

"We do predict that the number of engineers in the future is going to be a problem. We work closely with schools around the country and we are in discussions with the Government as well to actually help incentivise people to look at a career in that.

"As we expand that obviously is a problem. We are attracting many, many people and we have got an employee base now of close to 30,000. We have employed 11,000 people extra in the last three years and finding those skills becomes increasingly difficult.

"The demand for skilled people is very high all over the world, so it is problematic but we do need a focus in the UK , hence our real focus on those keys skills of science, technology and engineering.

"I think the whole economy, and certainly businesses like ourselves, have got a part to play in making it interesting and desirable to get involved in technology and engineering, and we do that through our brands, we do it through great products."

Mr Popham was speaking as a new report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation revealed the demand for staff had increased at its fastest pace since April 1998.

But a shortage of suitable candidates meant firms were having to pay more to secure the right people. The biggest demand for permanent staff was in the engineering sector in August, said the REC report.

Kate Shoesmith, the REC's head of policy, said a recovery in business confidence had seen firms keen to hire new staff, but they were facing shortages in engineering, IT and in construction.

The report found the growth in starting salaries was faster in the Midlands, the South and the North than in London in August, driven by increasing competition to attract and retain skilled people.

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