According to government figures, 90,000 engineers lost their jobs last year - many highly qualified and experienced like me. Retraining would be simple if the opportunity existed but every initiative looks at fresh graduates and more apprentices.

Can the sector wait years and years for these to attain our level of knowledge? The IET [Institution of Engineering and Technology] says average salaries are £31k for CEng qualified engineers, so pay isn’t the problem, just attitudes to those not ’in the club’ of sectors such as rail, defence or power.

Sort ageism and re-training for engineers and you will have more people bringing fresh ideas to this sector which is supposed to be new, hybrid, multi-disciplinary and open to best practice from elsewhere.

Young people don’t want to become engineers because it isn’t a secure job and it isn’t a career for life unlike other countries. Offer technical courses, not more management training or CV writing to unemployed engineers.

The people are there but recruiters make more money by saying there are shortages.
Wes