Editorial

Citation

(2003), "Editorial", Microelectronics International, Vol. 20 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/mi.2003.21820baa.001

Editorial

Have you noticed lately how you cannot seem to get a builder for love nor money? This also seems to apply to electricians, plumbers, carpenters, mechanics and almost all skilled professions and crafts. If you can actually get someone to do the job you invariably end up wishing to pay them a visit with a large garden gnome tucked under your arm Basil Fawlty style! Most seem to agree that the general shortage of skilled craftsmen/women stems from the decline in the apprenticeship schemes, that seems to have been going on unabated for several decades. This is also possibly not unconnected with the increasing numbers of young people going on to higher education in universities and colleges. That fewer and fewer of these youngsters are opting for science and engineering disciplines is also a cause for concern. After all, the world only needs a relatively small number of people qualified in media studies does not it?

We do seem to be seeing a "bottoming out" of the current recession that will hopefully lead to a new period of growth and expansion. Whether we will have sufficient numbers of technically skilled people to carry us through any such upturn is somewhat debatable. The technology demands placed upon these people will be even greater than before with the huge advances in manufacturing that are currently taking place. De-skilling may be an option but who is going to de-skill the tasks in the first instance? Also, as no doubt demonstrated by the last dodgy builder/ plumber/electrician you employed, you can de-skill a task as much as you like but there is no substitute for knowing what you are doing in the first place.

How do we encourage young people to opt for challenging technical careers and abandon their attempts to become a star of the small screen? One thing could be to try to curb the excesses of the media itself and our obsession with the notions of fame, but realistically that is only likely to get worse. Andy Warhol was right; in the future we will all be famous for 15min, but it is not likely to be for an engineering achievement. Perhaps another way is to have everybody go to university (surely only a matter of time anyway?) but ration the number of degrees available in non-technical subjects. It could even be a good idea to have a sizeable quota of degrees in building, plumbing, carpentry and household electrics. That way we could have the benefit of being able to "weed out" dodgy tradesman/ women by asking to see their degree certificates before we give them the job! Who knows ...?