Arup study finds major shortages across key professions in five years

A new study has predicted major skills shortages amongst those tasked to build sustainable communities. The report, written by Arup for the Academy for Sustainable Communities, found that eight of 11 professions across construction and regeneration would face a dearth of talent in 2012.

Landscape architects top the list of endangered professionals in five years, with Arup finding that there would be a massive 91% shortage (as a percentage of supply) in 2012. Other professions struggling to find talent include sustainability specialists, regeneration professionals and planners, which will be in deficit by 74%, 73% and 46% respectively.

The report calls for a national drive to address the yawning skills gap. “Although there are significant numbers of highly-qualified, highly-committed individuals throughout the industry, there are labour shortages, concerns over some technical skills, and generic skills are lacking,” it says.

The report adds that more research is required into the area as “current evidence from a wide range of sources is ambiguous”.