Re: Where have all the technical workers gone?

[Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

It's not just the US where there is a lack of technical workers. Here in
the UK a similar situation exists.  Over the past few years there has been
much tinkering with the education system and people generally bemoaning
dropping standards.  I think George Mena is right in that it comes down, at
least in part, to a lack of stimulation.  My father was a joiner
(carpenter) and I still love "playing around" with wood and making things.
General encouragement  as a child with science kits, electronic kits etc to
play and make. Nowadays it's more likely to be computer games etc as
against the "making" of things.

We regularly hear employers asking for changes to the curriculum to make it
broader and more general and for certain subjects to be better promoted
(science and engineering). They claim that in many cases they simply cannot
get employees with basic skills.  Against this I read an article recently
about the "Irish Tiger" and how well it was doing with many firms basing
their European operations there.  Apart from the usual financial reasons
(tax incentives etc) one reason quoted for its success was that it has the
highest (one of?) proportion of science/engineering graduates in Europe
providing a work force which HAS the basic skill which can then be fine
tuned to meet company requirements.

Damien Braniff
Technical Author
PAC International


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