The shortfall in skilled engineers is something that the Navy has seen coming for quite some time, and they’ve been taking steps to ensure they can keep ships at sea and staff the two new aircraft carriers coming into service in 2020.
In order to do this, it’s looking to industries like oil and car manufacturing for staff with the relevant skills.
To then be able to compete with other employers, they’re bringing in financial incentives in the form of recruiting and retention pay as well as commitment bonuses.
They’re also looking at ways in which to stop engineers with years of experience having to start from the bottom.
One option is to bring them in as a Petty Officer, two ranks above the entry level starting point.
The Navy are also looking at schemes for employing personnel with immediately transferable skills like those from the US Coastguard and those leaving the British Army (REME).
A Royal Navy Spokesperson told us: “The Royal Navy currently has approximately 5500 personnel deployed today, working with NATO in the Baltic, to tackling Daesh in the Gulf, to protecting the Falklands. Established manpower challenges, born largely of a competitive employment market, are being resolved as the fleet moves towards two world-class aircraft carriers, advanced destroyers and cutting-edge submarines.”
They also stressed, “No Ship will ever go to sea unless it is fully manned for that particular task”.
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from Defense Aerospace - Press releases http://ift.tt/2955cyP
via Defense
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