Professional Engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering has criticised new research suggesting a majority of engineering graduates cannot find employment in the industry.

The research, from the University of Birmingham, found that less than half of engineering graduates were working as engineers following graduation. The study claimed that many graduates were choosing to work in other professions or struggling to find jobs in the field, despite employers and industry leaders having repeatedly raised concerns about a lack of good quality science and engineering graduates.

The study claimed that there could be too many people studying science, or that graduates were opting for different professions because they do not enjoy the subject.

The report, which is being presented at the British Educational Research Association annual conference in London, analysed official figures on the proportions of engineering students entering related jobs, other professions, or work that did not require a degree, in 2009.

The findings suggested that less than half (around 46%) of 2009 engineering graduates were in jobs directly related to their degree subject six months after leaving university.

Around one in five (20%) were employed in roles that were not directly related to their degree, and around one in four (24%) were in "non graduate" employment, for example working as waiters or in shops.

Report author Emma Smith said: "It is astonishing, in the light of claims of science graduate shortages, that so few new graduates go into related employment."

She added: "The figures suggest it is not easy or automatic for qualified engineers to get related employment in the UK, despite the purported shortages."

The study said: "Perhaps, because of recent initiatives, there seem to be too many people studying science for the labour market to cope with, or perhaps graduates are no longer of sufficient quality."

It is more likely, however, that all of these scientists are without relevant employment every year because the shortage thesis is wrong and there are no jobs waiting for all of them, or because they are 'dropping out' having learnt that they do not enjoy their subject areas."

But the Royal Academy of Engineering said skills shortages presented a “clear and present danger” to the economy. It suggested that Smith's figures were little different to any other degree subject at the same point in time.

Philip Greenish, chief executive at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “Engineers are highly skilled professionals. Employers recruit them from wherever they can in a global marketplace. Only a proportion will be fresh UK graduates. To infer that employers don't know their own workforce needs when they identify a shortage of engineers, and to do this based on data that only considers a subset of recruits is just plain wrong."

Paul Jackson, chief executive, Engineering UK, said: “The situation is a lot more nuanced than Smith... suggest[s]. Skills shortages do exist in particular areas, notably in power engineering, petrochemicals, systems engineering and advanced manufacturing,”

“Talented students who have the potential to be our future graduate engineers must not be put off by the headline-grabbing statistics taken from this research, rather than looking at the detail of the situation. The key message from this research is the challenge to the engineering community to ensure that our degree programmes continue to meet the future needs of industry.”

Research by the engineering profession showed that almost nine in ten engineering graduates who graduated in 2010 were either in full or part time work or had opted to undertake further study, the academy said. According to the HESA Destination of Leavers from Higher Education survey, the mean average salary of engineering and technology graduates six months after graduating is 11% more than the mean average salary across all degree subjects.