Migration rules relaxed for skilled engineers

Jo Faragher

Plans to relax the migration rules on employing engineers from outside Europe will have a positive impact on skills shortages, according to specialist recruiter Oilandgaspeople.com.

Twenty new engineering job categories will be added to an exemption list to help businesses recruit skilled foreign workers. Following a review, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) advised immigration authorities to add the newly created job categories to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), a register of jobs that are exempted from strict immigration rules.

“This is welcome news to an industry struggling with a significant skills shortage,” said Kevin Forbes, CEO of Oilandgaspeople.com. “It is good to see that the government can ease its tough new immigration rules for strategically important industries. Given how severe the skills shortage is, the decision was long overdue. Now the industry can recruitment overseas workers without having to waste months advertising across Europe first.” 

However, Forbes warned that the measure might only prove helpful in the short term. He added: “While skilled foreign workers are now able to come to the UK and work for North Sea Oil and Gas thanks to this change, they will still be tempted by higher wages in other parts of the world where skilled staff are also in short supply.”

As a result of the review, North Sea Oil and Gas companies will be able to hire foreign workers for posts without first advertising them across the European Economic Area, he explained.

Forbes added: “This new measure just makes it easier to move around the world the same amount of skilled labour as before. What the industry needs is more training and more people entering the industry. There is still much to do.”