Monday 3 February 2014

Dyson wants immigrants

The inventor Sir James Dyson has spoken out against Britain's strict immigration rules.  Some readers might want to point out that our immigration rules have been as watertight as a sieve for more than fifty years, but apparently not so.  The Daily Express reports that:

Sir James Dyson, the brains behind the iconic vacuum cleaner brand, believes excessive paperwork and strict visa rules are encouraging foreign engineers who have been trained in the UK to take their skills abroad.

It seems perverse that it is very easy for people to come to the United Kingdom from Romania and Bulgaria, regardless of whether or not they are convicted criminals, and yet it can be hard for a law-abiding graduate to stay here.

But then I have to wonder why Sir James Dyson should want to recruit foreigners when he could recruit British people.  Maybe the answer is that the number of home-grown engineering graduates is insufficient, but whose fault is that?

Britain is a country which encourages large numbers of people, mainly school leavers, to go to university and study for degrees.  It does not however offer much encouragement for people to study what might be described as core vocational subjects.  Obviously graduates in core vocational subjects tend to earn more than graduates in other disciplines, and yet far too many young people seem to opt for the path of least resistance when choosing what to study.

Maybe the British government should take more steps to encourage our school leavers to study core vocational subjects such as engineering instead of subjects which are of little relevance to employers.  I can dream.

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