Royal Navy skills shortages gives engineers career boost

Qualified engineers will now be permitted to join the Royal Navy senior service directly at officer level for the first time in its history in a bid to tackle the growing skills shortage.

The new proposals means that qualified engineers will leapfrog junior ranks to secure higher wages and will also be "incentivised" to remain, with one-off bonuses worth thousands of pounds.

The Royal Navy is short of around 500 engineers and to tackle this problem, it has launched the unprecedented move, codenamed Operation Faraday.