WWICS Blog

Skilled Workers Crunch in the UK as Manufacturing Grows- Employers Turning to Overseas Workers
Posted on : 25 Feb, 2011

The manufacturing sector in the UK has grown by 4% in the last 12 months as brought forth by the research conducted by Semta, the sector skills council. Despite the growth, as many as 500 jobs remain unfilled in the UK due to the lack of Skilled Workers. Furthermore, the report predicts that between now and 2016; approximately 11,000 new workers will be needed in manufacturing, engineering, and science.

Coming out of the recession, UK employers are struggling hard to refill the ranks and also the new positions. One of the biggest concerns that these employers face is that the regional workforce does not posses the required skills to fill the vacant positions. In the wake of the acute shortage, all the employers are turning to overseas workers.

“The revival of the manufacturing sector is a good sign for the Skilled Workers who plan to immigrate to the UK”, said Col BS Sandhu, CMD, WWICS Group. He added that this is a good time for all the Skilled Workers & Professionals to cash in and apply at the earliest as it is widely anticipated that the proposed Immigration Cap is expected to have a significant impact on Tier 1 General (formerly the Highly Skilled Migrant Program (HSMP)) in particular since the Tier 1 Highly Skilled program would end in April 2011.

With the end of the Tier 1 program, the rules for the Skilled Workers to immigrate to the UK are bound to get stringent. However, the employers in the UK say that the workers can also take advantage of Tier 2 visas as well to ensure that the skills gaps are bridged.