The real extent of the UK skills gap has been revealed in a new survey from European online recruiters StepStone.

Nearly a third (28%) of companies struggle to fill vital engineering roles within their organisations, with a further 15% finding it particularly difficult to find IT specialists.

StepStone found that across Europe, one in four companies admits to having difficulties recruiting IT staff and a further one third of companies struggle to recruit engineers.

The survey, entitled "Recruitment Trends 2006", questioned 2,171 HR managers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and UK.

Colin Tenwick, chief executive officer, StepStone said: “We keep hearing about the skills gap, especially in relation to areas such as engineering and IT.

“The bottom line is this - government action and academic think tanks aren't addressing the problem quickly enough.

“There is a perceived mismatch between what industry is demanding and the skills that schools and universities are churning out.”