Relax UK visa rules for skilled workers

United Kingdom, 25th September: UK government must relax immigration norms to enable digital firms hire high-skilled workers from the world.

This has been revealed by UK think-tank in its recent report.

Easier UK visa norms for high-skilled immigrants--Named ‘Bits and Billions’, the report by UK think-tank emphasis on the need for finding high skilled workforce for UK startups by removing immigration restrictions.

The Policy Exchange based in London states that in the wake of tough UK visa norms, startups in the UK are unable to find required workforce.

So, the need is that the UK government must reform its immigration policies as early as possible. Citing the example of the US, the report maintains that right now, the US has around fifty percent of top digital startups in different parts of the world.

The UK does have the potential to become a global leader in the digital and high-tech economy.

So, the UK also must follow the US by easing immigration policies to help the nation become home to digital start-ups and become a global leader in the digital economy.

Start UK two-year post-study visa program—Among the steps suggested by the UK think-tank for helping the UK attract foreign workers to be employed at digital startups include reinstating UK two-year PS(post study) visas.

Such a move would lead to attracting more foreign students from non-EU nations including India to come and take up jobs in the UK after completion of their study here.

That’s because digital startups are in need of hiring people with requisite skills quickly and it should not take months together to get workforce with high-skill sets, inform Chris Yiu, lead author of the paper.

Improve domestic STEM capabilities—The report highlighted that the number of UK students taking up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) remained at 11,500. The report further maintained that the number of international students opting for STEM courses in the UK increased to almost double between the years 2002 and 2010.

This means the nation should work towards improving not just the numbers but the standards of home-grown STEM capabilities.

And if the UK eases its immigration requirements for high skilled immigrants, it can help digital startups to hire high-skilled workforce for a period of two years initially(on probation) without paying them any high salary, the report suggests.

Another step could be offering more incentives for luring investors and different schemes for attracting best talent.