Engineering leaders have urged non-EU migrant engineers to come to Britain on tier 2 work permits amid an increasing skills shortage across the industry.
According to a new article from The Engineer, the country us currently experience a shortage of around 20,000 engineering professionals and will require help from foreign experts to fill gaps in talent.
In fact, recent figures from Engineering UK have suggested that the shortage in engineering workers could increase to 180,000 every year until 2020, contributing to concerns over UK immigration policies.
Commenting on the figures, Sanwar Ali of workpermit.com suggested that the process of employing people from abroad is particularly difficult and expensive for British businesses.
Specifically, he suggested that the process of applying for a tier 2 sponsorship licence could be particularly difficult, made more complicated still by the possibility that the Home Office will require a visit to be organised.
“Another difficulty now is that due to the tier 2 restricted CoS quota there are not enough visas to employ tier 2 visa applicants based outside the UK,” he said. “Currently in most cases employers need to pay from £50,000 per year upwards.”