Skills shortages Steelmaking in the UK
According to the IMF, the UK workforce has larger and more chronic skills gaps than in most peer countries, with surveys reporting widespread recruitment difficulties with implications for output in high-skill sectors like digital and software, manufacturing, medicine and life sciences, teaching and construction.
“ This partly reflects declines in
Ann Watson, CEO, Enginuity. primary and post-secondary education outcomes( particularly science scores, over the past two decades) and in workplace training and apprenticeships, particularly for the young. Moreover, the recent increase in non-EU migrants has not fully offset the adverse impact from Brexit on the availability of needed skills, including because smaller firms face more recruitment hurdles with regard to non- EU hires. Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need to upskill the UK workforce,” it said last year.
“ Manufacturers are still struggling to recruit with some 58,000 unfilled live vacancies, while the talent pipeline continues to decline at an alarming rate. Apprentice starts are down 42 % since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced and T-levels, designed to deliver much-needed technical skills into industry, still do not have the required uptake to make a meaningful difference,” commented Make UK in November 2024, when it launched its Industrial Skills Commission.
Responding to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’ s announcement that skilled migration was going to be curbed for those that don’ t have a degree, Ann Watson, CEO of Enginuity( formerly known as sector skills council, Semta) said that a sudden reduction in visas for workers needed desperately by UK industry could prove disastrous if business does not react immediately.
“ A massive uplift in UK skills training is now an urgent necessity, not just a laudable ambition ……. hundreds of thousands of skilled workers are due to retire in the next five years, which will only exacerbate the situation,” she said.
In Scotland alone, more than one million additional workers will be required in the next ten years.
Image: Tata Steel.
Image: Shutterstock. com.
Following successful measures to secure a stable supply of raw materials to its two blast furnaces, British Steel confirmed on 22 April 2025 that it will end the ongoing consultation on redundancies that was initiated by the previous management.
The announcement came after the company officially withdrew the HR1 consultation form that it had submitted to the UK Department of Business and Trade on 27 March 2025. The move is part of ongoing efforts to stabilise British Steel’ s blast furnace production following the UK government’ s passing of the Steel Special Measures Act on 12 April
2025.
The UK’ s Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, requested the recall of Parliament to vote on emergency legislation to prevent the blast furnaces being shut down. The legislation gives the UK government power to direct the company’ s board and workforce, ensure that they get paid and order the raw materials to keep the blast furnace running. Funding for the site will come from the UK government’ s £ 2.5bn steel fund, to help rebuild the industry over the next five years.
Tata Steel has launched a major research partnership with leading UK academic institutions to accelerate the development of low-CO₂ steel technologies. The collaborative initiative is focused on innovations in Electric Arc Furnace( EAF) technology, the further development of scrapintensive steel products and
Manufacturers are still improving the capabilities of the UK recycled-steel supply struggling to recruit with some chain— all key to building a
58,000 unfilled live vacancies, circular low-carbon economy. while the talent pipeline continues To support this, Tata Steel to decline at an alarming rate is working with Imperial College London; University of Cambridge; Warwick Manufacturing Group( WMG), University of Warwick; Henry Royce Institute and Swansea University.
The initiative aligns with the UK government’ s forthcoming Steel Strategy, targeting the revitalisation of the domestic steel industry, development of manufacturing supply chains and supporting national economic growth. The partners are now prioritising critical research areas to ensure technologies are ready for implementation ahead of the commissioning of one of the world’ s largest EAFs at Tata Steel’ s Port Talbot site in 2027 / 28. The initiative is a cornerstone of the UK’ s vision for a low-carbon, high-tech industrial future.
Throughout 2024, Tata Steel UK has undergone restructuring that will reduce the size of its workforce to around 5000 direct employees.
Liberty Steel’ s submission to the UK Steel Strategy consultation has proposed, it said, " decisive government action in the form of strategic demand side measures, cost competitiveness and co-investments to reverse the long-term decline in UK steel production and set the industry on a sustained upward trajectory." n
36 | ismr. net | ISMR June 2025