Lisburn company highlights skills gap

Managing Director of Kelvatek Ltd John Cunningham said: “There is a complete dearth of engineers and to support that we are being forced to open up design offices in other parts of the world - in Poland, Denmark, Italy, England and Scotland.”

Mr Cunningham described the number of University graduates in manufacturing across Northern Ireland as ‘almost laughable’.

“Manufacturing needs products, products need design engineers. If you don’t produce these design engineers, you cannot build a manufacturing base,” said Mr Cunningham.

Kelvatek, which is in Knockmore Industrial Estate, designs, manufactures and supplies a range of products to the power and rail industries.

It is set to make a £3.5 million investment over the next three years in order to expand its product range, triple its employee numbers and quadruple turnover.

The investment is supported by Invest Northern Ireland which has offered £300,000 of support.

Employment and Learning Minister Stephen Farry, said: “Skills were the key driver of the Northern Ireland economy.

“We do need to be working at full efficiency and where there are skill shortages or mismatches that clearly is a problem.”

However the Minister said steps were being taken to tackle the problem through increased university places and the use of conversion courses.