A few things have happened over the past few weeks which have made me look at the impact of this recession differently.
I have
been to the Middle East several times recently and had quite a few discussions
with young people from within the construction industry. At the end of last year a close friend of the
family emigrated to Perth, Australia. At
the beginning of this year a friend who I had worked with throughout the BSF
programme emigrated with his whole family to Canada.
When in
the Middle East, I have met so many people who have moved from the UK to make a
new life.
Only
last week one of our young architects in our Newcastle office decided to
emigrate to Canada where they are crying out for young professionals.
My
concern is not the short term, but more the long term impact this will have on
UK PLC. Lots of our brightest talent is
leaving the country. In the future we
will pay the price for this.
Whilst
in the short term, it is great there is a market for our skills but once they are
gone they are gone.
Much of
the historic success of our country has been built on our engineering and
construction skill. Once it has been
exported it is difficult to get it back.
Our
government needs to make staying in the UK attractive to our young people and
must give them exciting and creative opportunities if we are going to be a
respected knowledge base across the world.
I've noticed a similar problem. Contractors want drafters that understand the construction process, but they don't want to train them.
ReplyDeleteThis is good for us who are already employed - because it pushes our wages up, but I appear to be alone in my concern that I am the youngest drafter in my office and I am 38!
The fact is that good drafters come up off the tools, but if companies aren't employing apprentices then there is no-one to replace the tradesmen.
I'm not sure if this is a Government problem or an industry problem but it seems like we are just saving up trouble for the future.