Graham Melroy argues that universities and SMEs are not communicating, which is helping neither graduates nor the industry.

One of my pet hates is the persistent claim that there is a skills gap in the UK. As someone who has worked in the engineering sector for almost two decades, I can assure you this is far from the truth.

As a small and growing engineering business in the UK, we face a daunting challenge: universities seem to be shielding graduates from the real-world skills and opportunities they and we desperately need.

Every day, we search for fresh talent to invigorate our projects, yet finding graduates prepared to dive into practical work is increasingly difficult. This is not because the talent does not exist – more so the lack of accessibility to it. Recent interactions with a prominent university highlighted a disturbing trend: academic institutions favour large corporations over SMEs like ours. After applying to exhibit at a university’s graduate jobs fair, T12 Engineering...