UK suffers a 'shortage of talent' as over four million migrants take UK jobs

FOREIGN workers are snapping up UK jobs because Brits are not skilled enough.

JOBS: Employers are forced to look to migrants as Brits are not skilled enough for basic requirements 

“It is up to us to ensure that the right skills become readily available to employers at home and that they are no longer obliged to look further afield”

Industry leaders

Bosses have blamed poor education standards for forcing them to look overseas to fill one in five vacancies.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said there was a huge demand for home-grown talent.
But its report said British firms were increasingly having to hire from abroad, with the engineering, manufacturing and electronics sectors suffering the worst skill shortages.

Industry leaders have called on the Government to make sure youngsters leave school with decent maths and science qualifications.

It said: “Many employers have been forced to look overseas for workers with the expertise and experience needed to sustain their businesses and it is clear that migration will continue to be an important source of engineering skills for some time to come.

"But it is up to us, together, to ensure that the right skills become readily available to employers at home and that they are no longer obliged to look further afield.”

LOST: Young Brits need training in the correct skills to ensure they are fully employable
 

The department’s Prof John Perkins said more must be done to nurture the engineers of tomorrow amid fears a million jobless youngsters will be written off as a “lost generation”.

The warning followed PM David Cameron’s call for UK firms to shun Eastern European workers and encourage better training of British youngsters. Recent figures show over four million foreign-born workers are in UK jobs.

Meanwhile, experts are doubting the Government’s plan to cut net migration to “tens of thousands”.

Professor John Salt, from the Migration Research Unit at University College London, said: “It is not clear what happens next; where further cuts would come from, what policies would be needed to maintain a net inflow below 100,000, or what happens if an improving economy requires more skilled labour.”