Skills threat to industry

9:20am Monday 10th September 2007

THE future of the region's thriving process industry could be in jeopardy unless action is taken to ensure 20,000 workers are trained to work in the sector by 2014, a leading engineering body has warned.

The North-East's process industry is predicted to grow by at least £4.5bn during the next ten years, creating thousands of jobs.

However, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) has warned that more efforts are needed to ensure the region has enough skilled workers by 2014.

Yesterday, Jeremy Lewis, the North-East regional chairman of IMechE, said the future growth of the industry depended on there being enough skilled workers.

He said: "It's very well known in the North-East that the process industry has dramatic plans to increase in size and investment. But along with that investment, there needs to be support for increasing the numbers of skilled engineers, tradesmen and technicians.

"The challenge is for us to keep the region and Britain at the forefront of the industry - we are highly respected on a global basis, and we have to maintain that, and find new skilled workers for a growing industry, and replace those who will leave in ten or 15 years' time. It is important that groups in this region work together, so they can collaborate and make the necessary steps to ensure we have skills in this industry in the future."

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