在劳动力市场的最高端，雇主们抱怨缺少这样的员工：拥有纯粹的理科学位，同时具备可以在商业环境中发展的个人技能。显然，这种人可以在航空航天、制药或投资银行等诸多领域挑选报酬高、要求高的工作。

金融行业自称“一直渴望青年人才”，但是，伦敦金融城当前的这股热潮意味着，为了聘用同一个有才干、有能力的人，需要进行比以往更为激烈的竞争，否则这个人就可能应聘工程、制造业或科学创新等其它领域的工作。

金融服务技能委员会(Financial Services Skills Council, FSSC)去年发布的一份研究报告估计，在未来4年，伦敦的企业每年将创造大约4000个金融服务领域的新岗位，其中多数都被描述为“高附加值职务”。 FSSC主席斯图尔特•伯诺(Stuart Bernau)表示，它们“需要世界上最有才干的人源源不断地来补充”。

伦敦商会商业领导人委员会(London Chamber of Commerce Business Leaders' Panel)上个月发布的最新一份报告证实，各行业的人才都供不应求。调查显示，67%的管理人员都曾在招聘过程中遇到过困难，其中最难的是招聘“专业” 或“管理职能”岗位人选。但是，竞争最激烈的是投资银行、工程，以及航空航天、海运、电子、生物科技和制药等高科技领域。

理工科及制造业技术行业技能理事会Semta的理事长菲利普•怀特曼(Philip Whiteman)表示，自他从化学专业毕业、看到数理化专业的同学都倾向于选择金融服务业工作至今，此个趋势一直在持续。

怀特曼承认：“这个行业非常吸引人，而且收入很高。那些理工科专业的毕业生从事营销工作非常出色。”但他表示，伦敦金融城的吸引力已经开始导致了一个问题，因为没有那么多纯理工科毕业生。

他补充道，应用理科课程的盛行加剧了这个趋势，稀释了理科毕业生群体，他提到法庭科学(forensic science)和其它“软科学”课程现在非常流行。“我认为这根本无助于工业，”他表示，“那些学位并不是雇主非常需要的。我们需要适当的、扎实的、纯粹的理科学位。”

拥有约7.6万家企业成员的Semta也发现了对更高层次技术教育的需求。该机构希望，通过更广泛地储备高级实习生（使雇员们可以接受在职培训），以及通过基础学位交易（新的2年职业课程），能够改善人才供应状况。

Semta 最近一次劳动力市场调查的结果显示，在所有缺少熟练工人的岗位中，70%是技术及工程岗位，或工艺、操作员和技师岗位，问题最严重的是机械操作工作。部分原因是科技发展非常迅速：接受Semta调查的企业中，55%的企业表示它们在过去3年已经改变了技能需求，主要是因为增加了新科技或设备，48%的企业预计将在未来2至3年因为同样的原因再次改变它们的需求。受技术工人短缺影响最严重的行业之一是航空航天业，58%的专业人士、工程师、科学家和技术专家要么不满足要求，要么就是在工作方面缺少培训。

怀特曼表示，这种持续的创新对英国的竞争力来说至关重要，必须找到更好的方式，使劳动力始终拥有最先进的技能。他表示：“如果我们要在设计、创新和发明方面保持市场份额，那我们必须开始提供培训这些高层次技术工人的课程。”

调查表明，Semta的成员企业相对不那么担心员工缺乏个人技能，或所谓的“软技能”。但是，怀特曼表示，就像其它竞相争夺高层次毕业生的行业一样， Semta的多数成员企业目前向新雇员——特别是刚毕业的雇员——提供某种入职课程或转变课程，以适应企业在团队工作、沟通和解决问题方面的需求。

但是，对英国多个行业的研究显示，雇主们总体上无法准确定义其需求和缺口。FSSC去年公布的一份题为“毕业生技能和伦敦金融城招聘”的报告显示，在“软” 技能方面，企业“在如何定义和解释技能时缺乏一致意见”，导致大学在如何以就业为目的更好地培养毕业生方面缺少明确的信息。该报告表示：“一家招聘单位所说的‘沟通'，可能被另一家企业理解为‘团队工作'。”

很大一部分金融方面的工作（如风险管理、金融工程和定量研究），需要专门的科技技能和知识。而投资银行对硕士学位专业人士（如金融数学）的需求越来越多。结果是伦敦金融城的企业增加了海外招聘人数。此外，金融服务领域的企业担心，英国的教育系统未能让毕业生具有应聘顶级工作所需的数学技能。

FSSC在5月份的一份报告评论道：“在计算能力和定量分析技能方面，英国学生与外国学生之间的差距越来越大。”该报告继而呼吁，放松对英国大学的外国学生留在英国工作的限制，因为各银行渴望招聘到足够的具备高水平定量分析技能的毕业生。报告的作者抱怨道：“本土人才的数量正在减少。”但是，多数伦敦金融城的企业表示，它们在招聘毕业生的时候并不寻找专业人士，而且对数量日益增多的过分专注商业的学位不感兴趣。它们对FSSC的研究人员表示，相比拥有诸如风险分析或国际证券等新课程学位的人，它们往往更倾向于聘用一个通才。

结果是，雇主们表示，与招聘对象之间的对话，迅速变成对其个人技能的发展程度、他们对该公司工作生活的接受程度的评估。最受重视的品质，是有紧迫感、自我激励、主动、有承受力——意味着有能力应对紧张、压力和挫折，甚至是被欺凌。正如一家投资银行的人事经理所说：“学术学位是敲门砖，我们还要考察更多的方面。我们现在不过把学术学位当作理所当然的事。”

译者/ 何黎

CITY COMPANIES LOOK FOR HIGH SKILLS  

By Miranda Green Monday, August 06, 2007

Are you a driven, resilient maths or science graduate? If so, UK companies want to employ you - whether or not you are already based in the country - because you have the skills they say they need. At the top end of the labour market, employers complain of a shortage of people equipped with a pure science degree who also have the personal skills to flourish in a business environment. Unsurprisingly, these individuals can take their pick of well-paid, demanding jobs in sectors as diverse as aerospace, pharmaceuticals or investment banking. The financial sectors have what they describe as a "constant appetite for young talent", but the current boom in the City means there is greater competition than ever to recruit the same talented, capable individuals who might otherwise pursue careers in engineering, manufacturing or scientific innovation. Research published last year for the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) estimated that London businesses will generate about 4,000 new jobs in the financial services every year for the next four years, and most of these are described as "high value-added roles". Stuart Bernau, chairman of the FSSC, says that they will "require a constant supply of the world's brightest and best talent". The latest report from the London Chamber of Commerce Business Leaders' Panel, published last month, confirms a picture of demand outstripping supply across all sectors. The survey revealed that 67 per cent of managers had experienced difficulties recruiting, with the greatest difficulties occurring when employers try to fill jobs they categorise as "professional" or "managerial". But the biggest competition is between the investment banks, engineering and the highertechnology sectors, such as aerospace, marine industries, electronics, bioscience and pharmaceuticals.

Philip Whiteman, chief executive of Semta, the sector skills council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies, says this trend has been going on since he himself, as a chemistry graduate, watched contemporaries with chemistry, physics and maths degrees opt for jobs in financial services. "It is quite sexy and highly paid, and they do a very professional marketing job on the undergraduates," Mr Whiteman admits. But he says the attractions of the City have begun to cause a problem because there are simply not enough pure scientists to go round. A flowering of applied science courses has exacerbated the trend and diluted the pool of science graduates, he adds, citing the current popularity of forensic science and other "softer" courses. "I don't think that has helped industry at all," he says. "The degree that they end up with is not in demand much from any employer. We need proper, robust, pure honours degrees in science subjects." Semta, which covers about 76,000 companies, also sees a need for better high-level technical education. Improvement in supply could come, the body hopes, through more widespread provision of advanced apprenticeships, which allow employees to train while in work and through foundation degrees, the new vocational two-year programmes. The results of Semta's most recent labour market survey reveal that 70 per cent of jobs where there are skills shortages are among technical and engineering skills or craft, operator and technician occupations, with the biggest problem in machine operation. This is partly due to the rapid pace of technological change: 55 per cent of the companies surveyed by Semta said they had changed their skills needs in the past three years, mostly because of new technology or equipment, and 48 per cent of companies expected further changes in their needs in the next two to three years for the same reason. One of the industries hardest hit by skills shortages is the aerospace sector, where 58 per cent of the professionals, engineers, scientists and technologists are underqualified or undertrained in some way for their jobs.

According to Mr Whiteman, this constant innovation is the key to UK competitiveness, and better ways must be found of keeping the workforce equipped with up-to-the-minute skills. "If we are going to maintain market share in design, innovation and invention," he says, "then we have to start providing courses that teach these high-level skills." The survey suggests that Semta companies are less worried by the lack of personal or so-called "soft" skills among their workforce. But, as in the other industries against which they compete for high-level graduates, Mr Whiteman says most companies now provide some sort of induction or conversion programme for new employees - especially recent graduates - to get used to what the company needs in terms of teamwork, communication and problem-solving. But research across several sectors of the economy shows that employers as a whole run into problems defining exactly what it is they need and what is lacking. According to "Graduate Skills and Recruitment in the City", a report for the FSSC published last year, when it comes to "soft" skills there is a "lack of consensus about how skill sets are defined and interpreted", which leads to unclear messages to universities about how they could better equip graduates for the world of work. "What may be termed communication by one recruiter can be understood as teamwork by another," the report says.

A significant minority of roles in finance - for example, risk management, financial engineering and quantitative research - require specialised technical skills and knowledge. And the appetite is growing for specialist postgraduate qualifications - such as financial maths - for investment banks. This has led City companies to increase their recruitment of overseas staff. Moreover, employers in financial services are concerned that the UK education system is failing to equip graduates with the maths skills they will need to compete for the top jobs. As a report for the FSSC observed in May: "There is a widening gap between the numeracy and quantitative skills of UK students and their overseas counterparts." The report goes on to call for a relaxation of rules that might make it difficult for overseas graduates at UK universities to stay on and work here because banks are anxious about finding sufficient recruits with those high-level quantitative skills. "The amount of home-grown talent is diminishing," the authors complain. But most City employers say they are not looking for specialists when they recruit graduates, and are unimpressed by the growing number of overly- focused business degrees. A generalist was often preferable, they told FSSC researchers, to someone on a new course such as a BSc in risk analysis or international securities, for example.

As a result, recruiters say conversations with would-be employees turn quickly to an assessment of how well their personal skills are developed, and how well they will adapt to life in the organisation. The most prized qualities are drive, defined as self-motivation and initiative, and resilience, meaning the ability to cope with stress, pressure and setbacks - even bullying. As one HR manager at an investment bank told researchers: "Academic qualifications are the first tick in the box and then we move on. Today we simply take them for granted."