MANY manufacturers in Kent and the south east have to look outside the UK for skills, according to a survey.

The latest survey by EEF South, the regional manufacturers’ organisation, highlights a widening of the technical skills gap which is pushing almost six in 10 manufacturers to recruit talent from eastern Europe and as far afield as India. Firms say the skills shortage is driving up recruitment costs.

SWEEEP, a reprocessing and recycling facility in Sittingbourne, has turned to Polish workers to solve its recruitment problems, even for jobs that do not need a high degree of technical skill.

Finance director Pam Watts said: “As a start-up company and as part of our social commitment we took the decision to recruit 60 adults from the government’s New Deal programme. Sadly, this has not worked for us. People came to us largely unscreened and their basic training was non-existent. We were concerned to find people sent to us with limited abilities. This put both them and those working with them at risk.

“Like many employers, we have now turned to migrant workers, particularly Polish. Their commitment to work is very different - it is not without problems, but generally speaking it has been a lot more successful.”

David Seall, EEF South chief executive, explains the background. “While it is encouraging that greater investment is planned in the UK’s technical skills base through an expansion of apprenticeships, as of today manufacturers simply do not have the volume of home grown talent that they need in order to remain competitive.

“Finding the right people for technical jobs continues to be a major challenge – and increasingly for manufacturers this means looking beyond the UK. The situation has worsened over the last two years and is particularly worrying because UK companies need to compete globally through knowledge and innovation rather than on price alone.”

EEF South members have called on the Government for more investment in apprentice schemes. “The message to government is to raise the status of craft skills, and promote the study of science and engineering more heavily, particularly to degree level,” said Mr Seall.

“UK manufacturing in the 21st century is highly successful in competing through design, innovation, quality and customer service but these achievements will be increasingly undermined if as a nation we cannot provide a ready supply of technically trained people.”