Technical personnel say UK is second rate
8 August 2008
The UK has just been ranked near the bottom of an international league of the most attractive places to work.
Talascend questioned 1,695 skilled technical workers worldwide to help employers understand their chances of plugging skills gaps with overseas talent.
53% of such overseas candidates who had worked in the UK rated its quality of life as high, unexpectedly low relative to other locations.
The UK was also surprisingly unlikely to be recommended as a place to work, with 64% doing so. Australia came out top, with 90% and sub saharan Africa bottom (47%).
Overseas nationals with experience of working in the UK were least satisfied with work benefits and hours, the weather, accommodation, affordability and healthcare provision.
Engineering resourcing specialist Talascend said: "The number of those studying subjects leading to jobs in fields such as engineering remains flat in the UK. The hope expressed to us by employers is that envisaged shortfalls, thanks to projects such as the 2012 Olympics, might be plugged by overseas talent. However, many other countries, regarded by our respondents as more appealing than the UK, also hope to attract such skilled workers.
The results also indicate that holding on to UK-trained workers will also be a challenge, which could compound the problem. They were the most likely to approve of their experience of working overseas and of those who hadn't worked overseas, were the keenest to go.
Streamlining the immigration process for non-EU skilled workers and calling for more to come won't in itself be enough to attract overseas talent. We need to think about other measures to make the UK an attractive place to work, even if we can't do anything about the weather."
