Engineering - around the world

Globalisation is really affecting the engineering industry. Many companies are looking at or have already moved specific parts of their businesses to other countries and away from the UK. These areas might be research and development, production or component supplies. This means that some types of jobs within a company will go overseas while other parts will remain in the UK. At the moment, there is a trend for production, or manufacture, to go overseas where labour is cheaper. This could mean that a lot of the engineering jobs available in the UK are at a higher skill level.

In Europe, Germany is one of the most technologically powerful countries in the world and France too is strong in terms of engineering with telecommunications and aerospace being two of the largest sectors in the country.

Outside of Europe, countries like China are growing in terms of engineering manufacture and there are many UK companies located there as the labour is cheaper than in the UK. The motor vehicle industry in particular is growing in China as is the gaming industry with more IT engineers being needed.

Japan, too, is a world leader when it comes to car manufacture, robotics and electronic appliances although it is starting to shift now towards telecommunications and software.

Other countries, like Saudi Arabia, need engineers to help them develop their infrastructure and there are shortages of engineers in the telecommunications, transport and power generation fields.

Source: Prospects Graduate Careers Service