James Dyson warns over lack of engineering graduates
Inventor and entrepreneur Sir James Dyson has called on the government to ease restrictions on the number of overseas engineering students remaining in the country after their course has ended.
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Sir James said bright young foreigners were desperately needed to develop technology for export and relieve the country's skills shortage, but that it was too difficult for them to stay in Britian.
It was claimed that up to 217,000 engineers will be needed within the next five years to plug gaps in the workforce and help drive the economy.
In the letter, Sir James said Britain would have a major deficit of engineers by 2017, adding: "Dyson has experienced this first hand, and struggled to fill the 200 extra engineering roles created this year
"Rather than sending science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates packing, encourage them to stay. Britain needs their expertise to develop technology for export and relieve our skills shortage."
