榴莲视屏

This isn鈥檛 something that is going to be a quick and easy fix! As I see it there are a couple of reasons for the current shortage. One of those was created in the1980鈥檚 and the second one in the 1990鈥檚.Going back to the 1950鈥檚, when I was a lad, my Grandad got it hammered firmly into my head that there was 鈥渘o higher calling for a man than to serve his time at a skilled trade鈥�. In that era kids at school were taught the 3R鈥檚 and made to learn what they were being taught. That seemed to change at the swap-over time from O-Levels to GCSE鈥檚, the 1980鈥檚, when the kids started to get told 鈥漌hat you think is important鈥�. The result of this I saw in the 1990鈥檚 when the drop-out rate on a Law degree was 30% in the first year! These youngsters thought their own opinions were more important than those of the Court of Appeal or the House of Lords.

The next thing, the 1990鈥檚 one, became obvious speaking with French, German, Spanish and other nationalities of students. It used to be that only 2陆% of British school leavers went on to University, and then only for 鈥渟erious subjects鈥�. Suddenly that percentage was shot up to 50%! The reasoning behind it? To keep unemployment figures down the same as other countries had already done!

So what all that amounts to is that the skilled labour shortage is down to the educational system we now have in the U.K. coupled with a changed cultural attitude towards getting hands dirty during a day鈥檚 work.The irony here is that many of the graduates end up with a 拢40,000 debt for their student days and can only get a job stacking supermarket shelves!

Another reason for skilled labour shortages is the cyclical nature of construction. It is 鈥渇irst to suffer and last to recover鈥� in very recession – and they crop up every 10 years! Nobody wants to be in and out of work like a yoyo!

Anyhow, how do we overcome this shortage of skilled labour? The first answer is to use migrant labour. This is what we are seeing currently in the U.K. with tradesmen from many European countries coming to work here on a temporary basis. There is a down-side to this, even as a temporary measure; they work cheap! That doesn鈥檛 encourage youngsters into the building game. The cost the migrant workers 诲辞苍鈥檛 incur is the U.K鈥檚. high housing costs. They are in temporary accommodation, often more than one to a room. Myself, I used to have even cheaper accommodation; slept in the back of my van!

The second, long term answer is to somehow get back to encouraging youngsters to serve their time at skilled trades again. Forget the Chancellor鈥檚 con of the 鈥渟ervice sector鈥�; get back to the 鈥渋f you make nothing, you鈥檝e nothing to sell!鈥� wisdom! Let us all take pride again in what we build or manufacture.

Coupled with that is a change back to yesteryear with educational policies. Emphasise the 3R鈥檚 to kids and get back to only 鈥渟erious subjects鈥� at Universities. The Lecturers needn鈥檛 be put out of work; they can move into teaching day release students and evening classes! Nearly all of today鈥檚 Universities used to be Polytechnic Institutes doing that anyway!

So there you go! I鈥檝e identified the cause of . I鈥檝e come up with short- and long-term solutions to the problem and, at that point, I鈥檓 out of my depth! I can鈥檛 tell you how to implement those solutions without economic and political turmoil. I suspect we might be getting to that stage anyway! For now we can just be thankful that the skill levels of so many migrant Eastern European tradesmen are as high as they are.