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The National Skills Task Force has been established by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment to assist him in developing a National Skills Agenda. The Task Force was asked to provide advice on the nature, extent and pattern of skill needs and shortages, including associated recruitment difficulties, how these are likely to change and what can be done to ease such problems. This paper is one of a series that has been commissioned to review and evaluate existing literature in a number of skills-related areas.

The aim of this paper is to assess the main supply and demand issues for engineering skills. Following a brief introduction, Mason examines recent evidence on engineering recruitment difficulties and skill gaps, distinguishing between those clearly identified by employers and others less obvious, described as 'concealed' or 'latent' gaps. In the following section he looks at the extent to which engineering skill problems are cyclical rather than structural. The next sections deal with the adequacy of current education and training both in terms of quality and quantity, including the impact of changes in technology and work organisation. Mason concludes with a summary and assessment section, which presents the findings and suggests that there are structural problems to be addressed which will involve changes and further research.

Other research reports in this series are indexed from TD/TNC 62.633 to TD/TNC 62.638 and from TD/TNC 62.640 to TD/TNC 62.651. Show less