A million youths are out of work...so train them to fill 500,000 vacancies

HOME-GROWN WORKFORCE IN WAITING

- Jonathan Walker and David Williamson

BRITAIN is in desperate need of skilled workers to fill nearly 500,000 key job vacancies, a Sunday Express investigation reveals today.

The building, engineering, technical and scientific industries are all crying out for staff and claim too little is being done to train homegrown recruits.

Yet up to a million people aged 16 to 24 are not in work, full-time education or training, says the Learning and Work Institute.

The stark revelation comes days after the Government announced plans to relax immigration restrictions to let in foreign bricklayers, roofers, plasterers and carpenters to fill the skills gap.

They have been added to the shortage occupations list. But furious MPs warned importing skills on the cheap would undercut British youngsters and pile pressure on our creaking NHS, schools and housing.

They are demanding a major training blitz to get more young people equipped to do well-paid jobs.

Building chiefs say they will need 225,000 additional construction workers by 2027. At present, across key industries including construction, manufacturing, arts and health care there are 464,000 vacancies.

The answer is staring them in the face, with more than 770,000 British under-25s without a job, full or parttime college place or training course, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Critics claim some industries are hooked on cheap foreign labour and have failed to invest in modern technology or skills training.

Two-thirds of people believe the country is too reliant on workers from overseas to plug skills shortages, according to an exclusive Omnisis poll for the Sunday Express.

And an overwhelming 84 per cent say young people should be encouraged to do apprenticeships in areas where there are skills shortages.

Tory MP Craig Mackinlay said many young people would do well to resist pressure to go to university and get on an apprenticeship.