The head of business innovation at EAL — the employer-recognised awarding organisation for the engineering, manufacturing, building services and related sectors — says that the younger generation is in danger of losing out on rewarding careers in industry. Elizabeth Bonfield warns that poor careers advice and the forthcoming changes to the ‘league table system’ could “cost the country dear”.

She said: “Industry is still a vital component of the British economy, which has weathered the recession and is growing fast. We need one million new skilled workers in the engineering sector alone in the next six years to cope with demand and, as it stands, that just won’t happen. There were around 800,000 people on apprenticeships across a wide range of sectors in 2012/13 compared to nearly 2,500,000 taking university degrees — an improvement on recent years, but still a woeful differential.

“This is a grave situation which has been in the making for decades. The pursuance of low-value often meaningless university degrees is still being led by those that influence the decision making of our young people. Parents and educators are still leading huge numbers of able young people down the wrong path towards unemployment or dead-end jobs.”

Professor Stephen Eichhorn, head of engineering at the University of Exeter, has also recently warned that the UK faces “a skills shortage at all levels.” The professor, who made his comments earlier this month in the Bristol Post, said that “there needs to be more of a drive in schools to get students to do sciences and maths.” Professor Eichhorn also said that “much more has to be done to address the gender balance. Engineering is just not traditionally viewed as a good area for girls to go into — and that is misleading.”