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New £100m London college will help fill 469,000 shortage of skilled science, technology & health workers
New figures from Office for National Statistics (ONS) show there are 469,000 vacancies in the construction, computing, scientific and health sectors. The huge number of job vacancies in skilled roles demonstrates the vital role a new £100million technical college will play in tackling UK skills shortages by teaching 6000 students a year by 2026 on highly skilled courses including Games Design, Dental Nursing and Bricklaying.
Figures from ONS for the UK (February to April 2022) show there are 469,000 vacancies in just four sectors:
- 212,000 Health & social work activities vacancies.
- 130,000 Professional Scientific vacancies
- 78,000 Computing and Technology vacancies
- 49,000 Construction vacancies
Organisations including the CBI have issued repeated warnings about the UK’s huge science, technology, engineering and maths skills shortages which has led to growing vacancy numbers for skilled STEM jobs including engineers, nurses and cyber security professionals. The new £100million London South Bank Technical College will open in 2022 to teach 6000 students a year by 2026 in hi-tech classrooms and workshops, on 46 highly skilled courses from computing to construction to robotics.
London South Bank Technical College is part of LSBU Group, a unique partnership of secondary, further and higher education institutions in south London. LSBU Group was created in 2019 after London South Bank University oversaw the first merger of its kind between a university and college.
Fiona Morey, South Bank Colleges Executive Principal, said, “There are over 469,000 vacancies in the construction, health & social work, computing and scientific sectors, fuelled by major skills shortages in the UK. Our new £100million London South Bank Technical College will teach 6000 Londoners a year by 2026 in the hi-tech skills that will put them at the front of the queue for highly skilled science, health, technology, engineering and maths jobs. Skills shortages comes at a huge cost, reducing the opportunities that workers have to build successful careers and to the economy. A recent NESTA survey said the cost of data-driven skills shortages for the UK economy is £2 billion a year. That’s why our new London South Bank Technical College is so important, to train the next generation of scientists, business leaders and engineers when it opens in September 2022.”UK skills shortage figures: in 2021 a Engineering Design Show survey found over 50% of engineering design firms said they were experiencing skills shortages. In 2021 a government report said there is a 9% annual increase in demand for cyber security professionals and a shortfall of over 10,000 people a year for cyber security jobs. In 2020 a Microsoft survey found 69% of business leaders said they had a digital skills gap. In 2018 a NESTA survey reported £2 billion a year is the cost of data-driven skills shortages for the UK economy. And in 2015 a CBI survey said 40% of UK employers reported a shortage of science, technology, engineering and maths graduates as a key barrier in recruiting staff.
2. London South Bank Technical College (construction and location): Phase 1 will open a new college building in September 2022 which will teach science, technology, engineering, arts and maths courses (STEAM block) and Phase 2 will open two new college buildings in September 2024 which will teach health, life sciences and business courses. The address of London South Bank Technical College, Belmore St, SW8 2JY.