Yahoo Finance Brain drain of graduates to London leaves cities facing skills shortage
Britain’s regions are suffering a “brain drain” to London as about a third of departing graduates head to the capital each year, analysis has revealed. Ministers are under renewed pressure to tackle the stubbornly unbalanced map of Britain’s economy, with warnings that some big cities are left with serious skills shortages.
Higher education data reveals that more than 100,000 of 2016’s graduates had left the region where they studied after just six months to take up work elsewhere. More than 30,000 ended up in London. The study, compiled by WPI Strategy group, found that in the East Midlands 55.5% of graduates left the area to find work shortly after graduating. While large numbers took jobs in London after studying in the south-east, 3,670 went there from the east of England, 3,410 from the south-west and 2,990 from the East Midlands.
Senior Conservatives, including Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands, have raised concerns about boosting skills outside London, as have major British companies.
The results reflect those of a previous study by the Centre for Cities thinktank, which found that a quarter of all new graduates from UK universities in 2014 and 2015 were working in London within six months. London attracted 38% of new Russell Group graduates with first-class or upper-second class degrees who moved for a job. Birmingham has Britain’s highest proportion of people with no qualifications: 16% of working-age residents have no formal qualifications.
Proposed remedies include asking universities to allow graduates to use their facilities for up to a year after finishing, or giving more powers to new metro mayors to offer “returnships” to those who move away.
Reversing the trend is a major challenge for metro mayors. Ben Houchen, Tory mayor for Tees Valley, said his region had been “over-reliant on too few industries, and statistics show how important diversification is to our economy”.
“Our existing cluster of hi-tech companies have a fantastic reputation, as well as a pipeline of skills in partnership with Teesside University and local colleges,” he said. “However, to compete on the global stage we need to go further. That starts with addressing our skills shortage.”
Street said inducements to stay in the West Midlands were better. “Connectivity is constantly improving, with HS2 supercharging our transport revolution,” he said. “But we need a similar revolution in digital infrastructure and the support we give digital startups, many of which spin out from our universities.”
Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said London’s “vast jobs market” continued to be the driver. “Graduates aren’t just thinking about their first job or salary; they’re considering which cities offer the best long-term prospects for a career and wages. There is little evidence that policies aimed especially at encouraging graduates to move to other cities have any impact. The priority should be to strengthen the economies of other cities by investing in transport, housing, innovation and enterprise.”
Nick Jeffery, chief executive of Vodafone UK, which funded the study, said he wanted to see more infrastructure investment to turn “a brain drain of talent into a brain gain”.
Margot James, minister for digital and the creative industries, said: “We want the UK to be the best place to start and grow a digital business. We have delivered superfast broadband to 95% of UK premises and government is supporting the development of local digital skills partnerships.
“Looking ahead to the future, our investment in nine centres for doctoral training in data science and the National Innovation Centre for Data will help nurture upcoming talent.”
