Hundreds Lured Back From U.S., Canada : British Engineers Reverse Brain Drain

LONDON â€”  Several hundred British engineers lured in the 1960s by high salaries in the United States and Canada are coming home to take jobs at half the pay in response to a “Come Back to Britainâ€� campaign.

The engineers are among 3,700 expatriates who responded to the advertising campaign launched by a consortium of major British high-technology companies last November in the silicon valleys of the United States and Canada.

“We were astounded by the response--it’s been a phenomenal success,� said Michael Tobias-Cole, director of Anthony Moxon and Associates, the employment agency that organized the recruitment drive.

“In quantity terms, the response was way above our expectations. In quality terms, the candidates we submitted back to our clients were much more highly qualified than expected.�

Mainly Homesickness

Despite the prospect of earning half what they did in the United States and Canada, the engineers wanted to return to Britain mainly because of homesickness, the agency said.

“In many cases, families--often led by the wife--do not feel happy and want to come back to familiar surroundings,� Tobias-Cole said. “Some feel dissatisfied with the education system in the United States and want their children to have the traditional English schooling they had themselves.�

In addition, the decline of Britain’s pound sterling makes it very attractive for expatriates with lots of dollars. They can afford to buy luxury homes and cars previously out of their reach.

All the engineers, earning $35,000 to $50,000 a year in North America, said they were willing to accept offers in Britain at 16,000 pounds ($17,920) and 20,000 pounds ($22,400), Tobias-Cole said.

Even though Britain has a record 13.9% unemployment rate, there is a shortage of professional engineers.

Engineering Skill Lost

“We have lost a lot of our engineering skills abroad since the brain drain of the ‘60s started. But secondly, there is a high-tech boom in Britain now, and with a very much more aggressive sales stance in overseas markets, we are winning a lot of orders so there’s a need for more engineers,� Tobias-Cole said in an interview.

British Aerospace spokesman Alan Piper added that British universities are still concentrating too highly on the arts and not turning out enough graduates qualified to work in high-tech fields.

The idea of recruiting across the Atlantic began when Moxon Associates identified a substantial shortage in Britain of electronic and computer software design engineers with between five and eight years experience, Tobias-Cole said.

“We put a consortium of companies together who were having difficulties in finding people in this country,� he said. These included British Aerospace, Plessey, Marconi, British Telecom and Standard Telephones and Cables.

“We took full-page advertisements in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Dallas, Boston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Jose, Calif., advertising engineering opportunities in this country,� he said.

Half Offered Jobs

Of the 3,700 people who replied to the ads, Moxon drew up a list of 900 who met job specifications. Executives of the companies then flew to the United States and Canada and interviewed a narrowed-down list of 525 over the last month, he said.

“The executives have been offering jobs to between 50% and 60% of the candidates interviewed,� Tobias-Cole said, and many are expected to return to Britain shortly to start work.

“Certainly the response has been very promising,� said British Aerospace spokesman Piper. “I understand that something like 185 possibilities have been identified by our personnel people.�

He said one reason engineers are willing to return to work for British Aerospace for half their salaries is the prospect of greater job permanency in Britain.

Frequent Moves in U.S.

“In the aerospace business in the States, they’re constantly moving across the country as jobs finish in one place and open up somewhere else. Brits aren’t used to doing that. The British tend to want to settle in an area and work in that area and not move around with their jobs,� he said.

A survey by Overseas Recruitment Services, a major British employment agency for jobs abroad, found an increase in Britons looking for jobs overseas in 1984 because of high unemployment and a promise of increased salaries--but a sharp decline in those anxious to go to Canada and the United States.

Of 500 people surveyed, nearly 60% engineers, Saudia Arabia was the most popular destination followed by the rest of the Middle East, the Far East, and then North America.