So when do you reckon we can say we're over the worst?

IveSeenTheLight

abaxas wrote: »

India, China, Malaysia (keen on electronic engineering) etc etc

Malaysia is also expanding into the Oil & Gas market.
India is too but needs too much to sustain it's own country first.
China is a hard country to negotiate with due to their laws, however they are a huge market and inroads are being met.

IveSeenTheLight

lemonjelly wrote: »

I would say at around 4.50pm tomorrow...:eek:

It certainly is a huge mountain to climb for England.
they've not played well and been lucky by all accounts to get the two draws.

They need to win else their out.
A draw and either the USA or Algeria will go through.
Slovenia also only need a draw to qualify

If England don't have a total shake up for the final game, they're out in my opinion

Really2

Pennywise wrote: »

And what particular "skills" do the average Briton's possess may I ask?

That is not how an average works it is skilled people divided by population.

not what skill does the average person have................

StevieJ

Pennywise wrote: »

And what particular "skills" do the average Briton's possess may I ask? It seems that the majority of the UK's working age population are either completely unskilled, i.e. living on benefits or working in unskilled occupations, or semi-skilled at best. I am fully aware that a lot of our workforce is highly skilled but it is really reasonable to think that some highly skilled Britons can carry the majority of the unskilled and non-working ones? I don't think so.
.

Remind me of the high skills base in India and etc for that matter, oh I remember they can speak English

Thrugelmir

StevieJ wrote: »

Where is that?

Honda employees in China have recently had a pay rise, they now earn £112 per month.

Considerably less than Honda pay production line staff in the UK.

Equal skills. Equal job.

Thrugelmir

StevieJ wrote: »

Remind me of the high skills base in India and etc for that matter, oh I remember they can speak English

...... and some years ago I dealt with an Indian software company that sub-contracted work to Romania as the labour rates were cheaper.

kabayiri

StevieJ wrote: »

Remind me of the high skills base in India and etc for that matter, oh I remember they can speak English

I've worked with Indian IT guys quite a lot, and I think I know their ability level.

But I'm interested to know why you think English skills are higher Stevie? Maybe your experience is different.

fc123

chucky wrote: »

“The pessimist complains about the wind;. the optimist expects it to change;. the realist adjusts the sails.” William Arthur Ward

I really like that.

markharding557

So when do you reckon we can say we're over the worst?

The worst is only just beginning:eek:

GingerSte

Pennywise wrote: »

And what particular "skills" do the average Briton's possess may I ask? It seems that the majority of the UK's working age population are either completely unskilled, i.e. living on benefits or working in unskilled occupations, or semi-skilled at best. I am fully aware that a lot of our workforce is highly skilled but it is really reasonable to think that some highly skilled Britons can carry the majority of the unskilled and non-working ones? I don't think so.

I can't see the UK (or in fact most of the Western economies) ever returning to their former economic glory. The best we can hope for is to try to keep things from getting too bad. We've basically been living on the momentum of the successes of our forefathers who really were innovative and skilled, but today, we've really not got a lot going for us at all. I fail to see why we think that the average person in the UK has some form of "right" to be better off that the average person in China or India or wherever - the global economy will have a balancing-out effect - that means, here in the UK and other Western countries, the "average" person is going to continue to be progressively worse off and the average person in developing countries and emerging economies will continue to progressively better off. It's an impossibility that we'll all be better off throughout the world - wealth is relative - if one group is going to be better off, another will have to be worse off to balance out.

In which case we need to "adjust our sails", to use the earlier quote. We have to increase the skill level of a large majority of our population so that we can compete. We have an edge in high-tech work (whether it be electronic, mechanical or other) and an edge in design, and we do make a lot out of that.

But we also have an edge in quality. I have heard it said many times that the quality of products built in certain countries is abysmal, and that they are reconsidering their position accordingly. If we can augment that with flexibility, by training people to do more than just one little job, then that would help enormously.

We also benefit from being able to export our goods to places in Europe a lot faster. China may be able to produce large quantities cheap goods, but they have to transport them very long distances by ship. By using that flexibility I mentioned, UK PLC can make smaller quantities of not-so-cheap goods, and have them delivered to France, Germany or Spain before the Chinese factories have even retooled (mainly because they get a lot of their tooling machinery from us).

And now the bad news. We won't become more competitive in the global marketplace by training up vast numbers of people in subjects like sociology and media studies. Subjects like law are useful in this country, but can be only of limited use in other countries (with other laws). Archaeology is a very worthy subject IMO, but those historical artefacts will just stay underground a little longer if fewer students are trained.

We do have to promote engineering, maths and science in our schools, and also show our pupils how useful they can be (I know how dry maths can be at times, but it underpins practically all engineering). The good news (for me) is that I believe shows like Top Gear and Extreme Engineering are promoting engineering again in the UK. I would predict (and like to see) numbers of mech eng students increasing in the next few years.

And finally, we have to take a long term view. Our banks have ignored the light industrial sector in favour of encouraging daytime TV viewers to buy property and let it out (hence Sheffield Forgemasters). A rebalancing in favour of industrial loans would provide the necessary kickstart that we need.

(Rant over. Thank you for reading)