Brain drain from UK worst in World

[datestamp]

There are some very interesting arguments and figures.

However, there is another interesting side to this: the NHS can't get enough staff from anywhere to do anything. Bearing that in mind, it is really clever of them to allow doctors to train in the UK then refuse to find a post for them. Many of these are now looking towards Australia.

Basically BLiar is a f*ckwi** - but we knew that now didn't we.

[BobTheCrate]

from the Architect in that article

I remember sending out 50 letters in the UK and not receiving any job offers and only a couple of replies"

Now what a surprise. Says it all really. No doubt this guy's profession are also complaining to all & sundry, "we can't get the skills".

Management & HR are a lot to do with the problem IMO. In the case of architecture; jumped up local authority parasites too.

[AlfredJPruffock]

In the past ten years in the murky world of International Computer Contracting,I have had only two placements in the UK, one for three months in Scotland and one for a year in Leicester which led to a transfer to Paris.

I would have vey much liked to have lived in my home country but frankly I now find that at the age of 45 UK companies in Scotland and England,are not interested in my extensive experience and skills and so I have become an economic exile, and I am certain I am not alone in this respect.

On the other hand,the Belgians have no such hang ups and I have just been offered yet another extension here in Brussels, which does rather make a mockery of the ageist polices where are unfortunately prevalent in the UK.

[Lucifer Box]

Getting them in there is not the same as educating them to degree level.

Very true. And Hamburger University doesn't count either I suppose.

[wendigo100]

What happened to all the song and dance about getting 50% of school leavers into higher education?

Getting them in there is not the same as educating them to degree level.

[DimPrawn]

It's a sign of globalisation and mobility.

Now anyone with an ounce of intelligence can find work and a new way of life in almost any country in the world.

By the same token, anyone with a ticket to Brtiain can waltz in and do the same.

Britain exports skilled and educated professionals and imports bog cleaners, shelf stackers and IT workers.

[Lucifer Box]

He said the problem was exacerbated by the relatively low level of university education in the UK, which means the exodus of professionals is more keenly felt. Fewer than 20 per cent of Britons are educated to degree level and the figures are higher on the Continent - 27 per cent in Belgium, 25 per cent in Germany and 22 in France - and way below levels in the US.

What happened to all the song and dance about getting 50% of school leavers into higher education? Or are they all doing degrees in burger flipping and shelf stacking?

[Rebecca Loos]

The scale of the emigration as a share of the total skilled workforce is also high. At 16.7 per cent - or one in six graduates - it is much higher than any other major industrialised country. In contrast, France has lost just 3.4 per cent of its graduates, the lowest level of any large country.

Well maybe that's because no one wants the French graduates.
And on the other hands, UK graduates have got an excellent reputation and are wanted all over the world. So a positive spin on it would be to praise UK universities.

[BoredBloke]

Didn't the same thing happen when Labour were last in power albeit due to super high taxation?

[n5gooner]

interesting.

[threaded]

Brain drain from UK worst in World

Britain has lost more skilled workers to the global "brain drain" than any other country, according to a report by the World Bank.

More than 1.44 million graduates have left the UK to look for more highly paid jobs in countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia. That far outweighs 1.26 million immigrant graduates in the UK, leaving a net "brain loss" of some 200,000 people.

The findings will fuel concerns that Britain's failure to defend its manufacturing, science and university base is pushing highly skilled workers overseas and risks damaging long-term productivity.

The scale of the emigration as a share of the total skilled workforce is also high. At 16.7 per cent - or one in six graduates - it is much higher than any other major industrialised country. In contrast, France has lost just 3.4 per cent of its graduates, the lowest level of any large country.

Frederic Docquier, one of the report's authors, said: "It does show an economic problem for developed countries. For countries such as the UK, a brain drain is clearly a loss. It may impact the rate of growth and the number of innovations that create growth in the long-run," he told The Independent.

He said the problem was exacerbated by the relatively low level of university education in the UK, which means the exodus of professionals is more keenly felt. Fewer than 20 per cent of Britons are educated to degree level and the figures are higher on the Continent - 27 per cent in Belgium, 25 per cent in Germany and 22 in France - and way below levels in the US.

His research suggested that British graduates were mainly moving to the US, Canada and Australia. "That is not surprising given the common language," he said.

But he said the sheer scale of emigration was much higher than rivals such as Germany. "Many Germans go to the US but the British are everywhere," he said. "You can go to any country and you will find a British graduate - that's why the figures are so high."

The most attractive destination is the US, which has 400,000 Britons followed by Canada and Australia with 365,000 each, and 200,000 in the rest of the EU. Some 120,000 go to other member countries of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development which includes states such as Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

Graduates are even going to India to work in call centres. Last week, a survey found that UK graduates were prepared to fill an expected 16,000 Indian call-centre vacancies by 2009. A report earlier this year said a Scottish history graduate quit his £21,000 a year job for Sky Television to work in an Indian call centre.

Such clear evidence of the scale of the brain drain will worry employers such as engineering and pharmaceutical companies who need qualified graduates.

In August, a report for the Department for Education and Skills found that low pay, increased administrative duties and fixed-term contracts were causing leading academics to pursue their careers overseas.
So far even the World Bank's study is unable to show how many graduates various professions have lost. "This information is well-known to be hard to establish," Mr Docquier said. He said there was an urgent need for more research in the UK to find out if the exodus was more prevalent in "growth" sectors such as engineering, IT, medicine and academia compared with graduates generally.

He said there were signs of improvement. The emigration rate has fallen from above 20 per cent in the 1970s to 18 per cent in 1990 to 16.7 per cent now due to policies boosting education.

The report comes a week after official UK figures showed that the number of British citizens leaving the UK had hit a record of 208,000. The Confederation of British Industry highlighted the phenomenon of globalisation as enabling all businesses to look overseas for recruitment.

Jamie Anderson, 27: 'It's easier to be creative now'

By Arifa Akbar

Jamie Anderson moved to Greece two years ago after graduating in architecture from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh.

In Athens, he found there were far greater opportunities and more creative projects.

"Architects go through a very long training process and I assumed I would be working by the end of the line. I spoke to some people in Britain and I was warned off it. They said you work long hours and do not reap the benefits of doing what you want to do.

"I remember sending out 50 letters in the UK and not receiving any job offers and only a couple of replies," he said.

He left Britain at the age of 25 in 2003, and found it easy to find work in Athens, which was preparing to stage the 2004 Olympics at the time.

"I joined a language class and it was through a friend of a friend there that I got my job in Greece. In the UK, it's extremely difficult to find a job, especially if have no experience. When I came to Greece, there were more opportunities," he said.

Having worked for several companies in Edinburgh over two years before moving to Greece, Mr Anderson was frustrated by the amount of paperwork and red tape that he encountered, compared to his work in Greece.

He works at Aiolou Architects, designing homes for foreign clients, and said that the work is far more creative than it would be in Britain.

"Whenever I was involved in designing anything in Britain, I reached this stumbling block of regulation, which often inhibited the designing and which wasn't very gratifying. In Greece, it is easier to be creative. I am able to do bigger projects and have more responsibility," he said.