Some 70% of Danish companies in the metalwork trade have no plans to train up their unskilled employees, leading to a ‘severe shortage’ of labour, according to industry union Dansk Metal.
The situation is “both paradoxical and deeply worrying,” commented Peter Faber, union secretary, with responsibility for education in Dansk Metal. “We know that in a few years we will be short of tens of thousands of skilled workers in the industry. Yet we can see that companies are not taking advantage of the many opportunities that exist to upgrade their unskilled workers so that they can contribute even more.”
At the same time, the number of companies that use an increase in order books to create and foster more apprenticeships is on the decline, from 27% in 2022 to 18% today, according to a survey of shop stewards.
‘At a standstill’
Dansk Metal quoted recent data that found that 176,000 skilled workers are expected to leave the labour market by 2035, noting that the application for vocational training is now ‘at a standstill’, meaning that the shortage of skilled workers is likely to growth significantly.
Dansk Metal is urging companies in the sector to collaborate with shop stewards to appoint training representatives and develop concrete upskilling plans.
“Upskilling unskilled workers is low-hanging fruit,” Faber commented. “It doesn’t take decades – we can start tomorrow. We simply can’t afford to have unskilled workers walking around who have both the will and the ability to become skilled. They need to be helped to get started.”
Slow to automate
Elsewhere, separate recent data from Dansk Metal found that small- to medium-sized industrial firms in Denmark are lagging behind when it comes to automation.
According to the union’s shop steward survey, some 90% of large companies have implemented some degree of automation, compared to just 25% of small firms. Sectoral differences are clear: 97% of food industry firms rely on automation, while only 33% of furniture makers and 23% of industrial firms in trade and transport have adopted them. Read more here and here.
