An offshore oil and gas firm is urging more boys and girls to study physics amid 'major concerns' that a shortage of graduate engineers is threatening the future of the energy industry.

Patrick Phelan, managing director of Aquaterra Energy, said the government, businesses and the education sector had failed to keep pace with the energy sector's demand for degree-level engineers.

The UK currently trains 46,000 engineering graduates every year, while government estimates that the actual demand is 87,000 each year for the next 10 years.

The issue is set to come under the microscope at the Norfolk Showground on Wednesday and Thursday when Mr Phelan will speak on skills and training at the East of England Energy Group (EEEGR) southern North Sea energy conference.

'With such urgent demand across the industry there is an undisputed need to rapidly increase the number of boys and girls in schools and colleges who are studying and progressing in the relevant academic and vocational STEM subjects, particularly physics,' said Mr Phelan, whose firm Aquaterra has a base near Norwich International Airport.

'By the time they are applying to university, and considering engineering as a degree subject, it is often too late.

'If they haven't studied both maths and physics at A-level, most of the best engineering degree courses will not be available to them.'

However, Dr Lawrence Coates, senior lecturer in engineering at the UEA, which recently launched an MSc course in energy engineering with environmental management, said: 'The challenge of growing engineering from scratch must not be underestimated, but we are very keen to rise to it. At UEA we have seen the rapid growth of the separate School of Pharmacy and are keen to follow their trajectory to being best in the country.

'We have just advertised for both a lecturer and senior lecturer post and look forward to sustained growth of the teaching team. We are looking to recruit at least one mechanical engineering lecturer as we see growth in that direction as important for the region.'

Data from the Department for Education and Institute of Physics shows that only a fifth of girls who get an A* at physics GCSE go on to study the subject at A-level, compared with half of boys in the same position.

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