Approximately 30 companies were polled, the majority being SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) in the South East of England. Examples of companies used in the polling exercise are:

• Bookham Technology
• Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd
• Oxonica
• Oxford Lasers
• Renishaw
• Mesophotonics
• Afonics
• SIRA Optoelectronics

The companies used in the polling exercise had expertise in a variety of industry sectors including:

• Optoelectronic device fabrication
• Semiconductors
• Fibre Optics
• Display devices
• Nanotechnology
• Medical Devices
• Optical Metrology
• Photonic crystal technology
• Telecommunications

Over 90% of the companies used in the polling exercise were SMEs i.e. they had fewer than 50 employees. There was a strong concentration of optics and photonics companies in the Oxfordshire and Southampton regions. For most companies, the average age of an employee was approximately 35.

Due to the downturn in the optoelectronics and telecommunications industry, the majority of companies have no current recruitment plans. When planning to recruit, companies are looking more for higher level graduates than technicians. The majority of optoelectronic companies had mainly higher level employees such as scientists and engineers with far less technicians. Only a handful of the companies used in the exercise employed operators. The following key criteria were looked for with regards to the different types of employment:

• Operators – manual dexterity and a willingness to learn were the key criteria looked for
• Technicians – the majority of companies looked for a minimum of BTEC/HNC/HND diploma
• Engineers and Scientists – most companies looked for a minimum of a PhD but were willing to consider good first degrees with relevant experience

Over 90% of the polled companies felt that felt that graduates entering the field could be better taught and wished to see an increased number of corporate presentations in schools and increased teaching content of optical technology among schools. The vast majority of the companies in the exercise were actively involved in sponsoring vacation/summer students as well as gap/sandwich year students and some were involved in giving corporate presentations to local educational establishments.

Companies felt that there was a serious shortage of skilled personnel entering the industry and current personnel often lacked the relevant qualifications and experience for the job. Employers felt that graduates of current optics and photonics training courses, particularly at BSc/B.Eng level whilst having a good theoretical understanding of the subject lacked the hands-on practical knowledge to be able to apply it to their job. Employers also felt that graduates often lacked the commercial skills to be able to work in industry.

In summary the main conclusions reached by optics and photonics companies in the UK were:

• High staff turnover levels
• Inadequately experienced staff
• Difficulty in recruitment of trained staff
• Optics poorly taught in schools
• Optics graduates although have strong theoretical understanding have poor commercial acumen and lack hands-on practical skills
• Difficulty in raising interest and awareness of optics – Physics still perceived to be ‘boring’