Skills survey will determine future visa requirements

10 April 2008
 
The results of a survey into the extent of the skills shortage afflicting the transport sector will determine whether visa requirements for transportation and highways engineers will be tightened.

The final report of the Project Brunel survey will, later this month, provide a detailed breakdown of the demand for transport-related occupations.

The Department for Transport ordered the work after claims that there was no hard evidence of a national shortage of transportation and highways engineers.

The new Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) wants such information to assist in its task of producing new shortage occupation lists by June. Sue Stevens, the Institution of Highways and Transportation’s director of education, said there was a need to ‘drill down’ to identify specific needs. Work Permits UK is pressing for the removal of transport occupations – including transport planners, traffic engineers and highway design engineers – from the list.

It has claimed the Engineering Sector Advisory Panel – which advises on the list until the MAC is fully established – ‘was not aware of any evidence to justify their continued inclusion’.

The DfT told the Engineering Sector Advisory panel that the project might make the case for adding occupations to the list in the short term, alongside other, longer-term actions to fill gaps. But it could also indicate some occupations needed to be removed. It would also need to be shown that any shortages could not ‘sensibly’ be filled by other methods.

Stevens said: ‘As a sector, we’ve got to demonstrate we’ve got a strategy for addressing shortages.’

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