This is according to the latest Quarterly Review from Scottish Engineering. The review revealed that the sector has now entered into its fourteenth consecutive quarter where there is a positive intention to hire staff. This could be interpreted as a growth in people employed in our sector, however the reality is a bit more bleak. Skills shortages are a continuous and increasingly pressing issue for our members.

The availability and impact of this crisis for our industry is one that desperately needs addressed, and this consideration coincides with the impending closure of the latest consultation on skills from the Scottish Government.

However, Scottish Engineering said it is pleased to see it’s not all doom and gloom as the sector continues to showcase its resilience and for the ninth quarter in a row, optimism remains positive. This could be explained by a matching upbeat forecast for orders and output, with five of our six broad sectoral categories returning a strong outlook.

Scottish Engineering chief executive, Paul Sheerin, added: “Whilst this quarter’s results are at best a mix of lower than expected actuals and more promising forecast, we remain firmly of the view that there is tremendous opportunity for our sector in the coming quarters and years from the many strands of infrastructure change and improvement.

“All of that is dependent however on urgently fixing the support system for skills, making the Scottish Government’s open consultation for our skills landscape critical to get right. Unfortunately the paths currently laid out don’t currently meet that need, but with a willingness to listen to what business support is needed to fix that, it’s never too late to correct that direction.”