Britain needs meat trimmers and boners, not techies
Ballet dancers, fiddlers still in short supply says gov
Posted in Management, 12th November 2009 14:16 GMT
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British IT workers can rest easy that they are not about to be displaced by a tide of non-EC workers after the government published its latest list of shortage occupations.
However, choreographers and ballet dancers, orchestral musicians and assorted medical types are still in short supply, it would appear.
Likewise chefs, secondary school teachers, vets and "work riders" are also as rare as hens' teeth.
A shortage of meat trimmers and boners means they make the list for the first time. However, the country clearly has sufficient numbers of ship and hovercraft officers, and they have been dropped off the list.
The position of techies can appear puzzling. We're forever hearing that not enough people are studying computing and the like in the UK. Yet, according to the UK Border Agency, there's no official shortage.
Meanwhile, under-employed techies regularly complain that their jobs have fluttered off overseas as part of an outsourcing exercise, or been reassigned to "intra company" transferred staff.
On the latter point, the government brushed up the rules for bringing in overseas staff earlier this year, after complaints that the regulations were being bent out of shape.
That didn't stop the Professional Contractors Group calling for an overhaul of the rules back in June, though.
The Migration Advisory Committee reported back in August, but the rules as listed on the Border Agency Site remain as they were back in June. ®
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COMMENTS
boiler engineers?
I told a guy I was an installation engineer and he asked me if I installed boilers. I thought boilers were installed by plumbers. The conversation didn't go much further.
Paris cos the world needs more plumbing innuendo.
Too many tw*ts in suits
Not enough people who actually know how to do their job. That goes for public and private sector, IT and management, etc.
@AC and jumped-up titles
You think you've got it bad with IT? Try engineering.
Ring up BT and report a fault. "OK, we'll send an engineer over." Really? What was his degree in? A mate of mine actually got arsey and said to the woman on the phone, "No, you're sending a technician." He didn't get any mileage out of it, because calling technicians "engineers" is now endemic and it's ridiculously hard to get anyone to see the difference. (And because call-centre staff don't give a toss, too.)
Try that in Europe and you're looking at a lawsuit. Like being called "Doctor", you can only call yourself "Engineer" with appropriate qualifications.
@David W.
Ah. That'll be due to the terrible shortage of Hovercraft eel-trap makers.
It's a dying art you know........
And while we are on the topic
Jumped up titles are rife in IT. Since when was a head of IT a CTO? As a real CTO it really pisses me off to see a title i have worked many years to achieve being handed out to the head of a technical support team. Is it any wonder call centre staff are being called IT workers? The rot has been started by those at the top. It's like all those sales 'executives' that knock on your door trying to sell you crap you don't want.
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