How cutting down on graduates is a dangerous game

The skills crisis

As England comes home defeated from the World Cup, it becomes so obvious that there is lack of good talent coming up through the ranks of sport in the UK and it seems that this skill shortage is hitting hard.

My eyes were recently drawn to an article in Construction Manager (my hubby is in the field) entitled, “Industry is storing up trouble over skills shortage, reveals CIOB survey.”

This survey reveals that the industry is laying the groundwork for an on-going skills crisis. A third of respondents said that the recession had resulted in reduction in graduates at their firms, while 20.3% said it had stopped altogether, with 32.9% saying that apprenticeships were down and 17.5% stating that they had stopped apprenticeships altogether.
Lyne Crowe, regional manager of the recruitment consultant Hays Constructions, says that the industry sees graduates and recruitment as a major cost, rather than a long term investment.

While I know nothing about the construction industry, my guess is that this trend is far-reaching and worldwide.

To me, cutting down on employing fresh talent seems totally counter intuitive. Not only do we create future problems for ourselves in terms of skills, but we also cut out the new creativity, energy and enthusiasm that young fresh meat can bring.

As a company, when the going gets tough do you cut your most valuable resource, the young fresh talent? What can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen?