The government is not doing enough to reduce the shortage of technicians, argues three in five HR decision-makers within technical organisations. They argue that the government should mainly allocate more budget to promoting engineering (47%), offer retraining programmes with job guarantees (41%) and ensure better cooperation with industry organisations (40%).
This is according to the TechBarometer 2022 by technical training provider ROVC. Over 1,000 HR decision-makers in the technical sector, 2,500 technicians and 1,000 potential lateral entrants took part in the survey. HR decision-makers blame the shortage of technicians mainly on the fact that young people are less likely to opt for a technical education (37%). Other factors within the industry such as an ageing population (14%) or a poor image of the technical field (10%) play less of a role, they say.
Initiatives from business are most effective
HR decision-makers thus believe that the government is not doing enough to address the shortage in the industry. There are initiatives in this area from within their own industry. Although they do not look for responsibility for the shortage within the industry, they do label these initiatives from industry (35%) as the most effective driver for reducing the shortage of technicians.
Companies are particularly committed to training staff more broadly (42%) and promoting the company as an attractive employer among technicians (40%). A quarter put money into making new technicians functionally employable quickly. For example, they offer a short course that trains them to perform routine tasks. This way, organisations quickly get more hands available.
Also more trust in education and industry organisations
Initiatives from education (20%) and industry organisations (18%) also contribute to reducing the shortage of technical staff. However, only 15% of HR decision-makers see initiatives from the government as the best driver for reducing the shortage.
John Huizing, director at ROVC: "HR decision-makers see initiatives from the business community as the most effective driver for reducing the shortage. However, the solutions they undertake hardly focus on young people and their study choices. They mainly focus on further training technicians and promoting their own organisation. While further training is important, retraining is an equally crucial part of reducing the technician shortage. Perhaps HR decision-makers see informing the youth as a government task. Instead, in our view, the most value lies in collaboration between industry and government to introduce youth to the tech industry. Consider, for instance, whether or not it is compulsory to offer engineering in primary or secondary education. That cooperation is currently insufficient."
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
