Sir James Dyson, creator of the iconic Dyson bagless vacuum cleaner, claims that a major shortage of engineers is threatening Britain’s economic future. The inventor and entrepreneur believes that he alone could hire over 2,000 new engineers.
Commenting on growth opportunities for Dyson, Sir James stated that a nationwide lack of engineers made it difficult for companies such as his to grow at the rate that they would like to achieve.
The well-known entrepreneur claims that his company has enough revenue to hire over 2,000 employees and would do so, ‘if it could.’ Dyson earned 19 percent more revenue in the last twelve months, reaching up to £1.24 billion in total sales.
Sir James plans to hire 650 new engineers in the next twelve months, of which 300 will work at in the Dyson headquarters in Britain. Another 350 engineers will work at Dyson’s two plants in Singapore and Malaysia.
The entrepreneur believes that the British Government doesn’t understand the vital importance of skilled engineers in helping Britain’s export market. He claims that an engineering force is required to adapt to the fast-moving market for technology.
Some of Dyson’s highest selling products, the inventor claims, were designed in the last twelve months for sale in the current market. Britain needs a larger amount of engineers in order to continually develop new products at a rapid pace.
While countries such as India develop large-scale engineering programmes that turn out over 1.2 million graduates ever year, the UK fails to produce 12,000 engineers a year. There are currently over 54,000 engineering vacancies in the UK alone.
Sir James advocates making design technology an A-level science alongside maths and physics. He also believes that post-grad engineering students should be paid a reasonable grant ‘in recognition of the contribution they will make.’
