With ASKAR SHEIBANI

CEO, Comtek Network Systems and chair, the DBF

According to the Learning and Work Institute (L&W) the UK skills shortage will cost the country £120billion by 2030. There will be a shortfall of 2.5 million highly skilled workers and an oversupply of more than eight million people with low skills.

According to the Open University, employers' costs due to the skills shortages have increased by over £6billion a year. These are all devastating economic conditions which will continue to hamper UK businesses.

Unfortunately, successive governments in the UK have predominantly ignored the key significance of continuous industry demand for upgraded skills and were reluctant to invest in training. They opted for the cheaper route of closing the skills gap by using skilled foreign workers.

Read again: North Wales recruitment shortage reaching "critical point"

The UK has plenty of human resources capital and, if they were trained, this could have dealt with the present shortages. For example, according to Welsh Government statistics, Wales has a disabled population of about 445,900, of which only 5% are physically disabled and just over 50% are in employment.

Although the vast majority of these people could be trained and take up skilled work, they are totally ignored. This is a shameful disregard for this section of our society that is willing to be trained, have employment and therefore contribute to the economy.

Being disabled doesn't mean you are unable to be trained to become a highly skilled and innovative individual. This is just one example of the ignorance and short-sightedness of government in dealing with this serious issue.

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The Deeside Business Forum (DBF), a grass-roots business organisation, has now partnered with Flintshire County Council and Welsh Government to launch an awareness campaign and establish a pilot scheme to support our locally based disabled population to gain skills and employment in Flintshire. This is just an example showing that, when the local and Welsh governments take the skills gap seriously, the business community will support their efforts.

The UK has a huge population of prisoners who may not be dangerous and could easily be trained and integrated into society as contributors. We need to be able to convert this vast human capital to support rather than be a drain on the economy.

Some of the prison governors have taken positive action by working with the industry to train and rehabilitate some suitable prisoners into economic activities. These good practices must be rolled out throughout the country with the support of the government.

Another wasteful example is the asylum seekers. The cost of keeping the asylum seekers in detention centres and hotels for years is eye wateringly expensive. Some of these asylum seekers are very highly skilled individuals. It makes no sense at all to not allow them to work, contribute to the economy and pay taxes while waiting for the Home Office's decision.

These are only a few common sense approaches to alleviate the skills gap with very little cost to the Treasury.

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In the recent leadership contests within the Conservative Party, there has been hardly any reference to UK's serious skills gap crisis which is severely damaging the economy.

The candidates are concentrating on corporation tax as the most effective way to boost the UK's economy. If you check out those that have high taxations, such as California, Japan and Germany, they have managed to attract fantastic great high-tech industries to their countries, since they have better infrastructure and an abundance of highly skilled individuals.

In contrast, countries with zero corporation taxes, especially in the Caribbean, have only managed to create a haven for tax dodgers, money launderers and criminals.