Britain is in desperate need of skilled workers to fill nearly 500,000 key job vacancies, a Sunday Express investigation reveals.

The building, engineering, technical and scientific industries are all crying out for staff and claim too little is being done to train home-grown recruits.

Yet up to a million people aged 16 to 24 are not in work, full-time education or training, says the Learning and Work Institute.

The stark revelation comes days after the Government announced plans to relax immigration restrictions to let in foreign bricklayers, roofers, plasterers and carpenters to fill the skills gap.

They have been added to the shortage occupations list. But furious MPs warned importing skills on the cheap would undercut British youngsters and pile pressure on our creaking NHS, schools and housing.

READ MORE: Interactive map shows unemployment numbers across Britain

They are demanding a major training blitz to get more young people equipped to do well-paid jobs.

Building chiefs say they will need 225,000 additional construction workers by 2027. At present, across key industries including construction, manufacturing, arts and health care there are 464,000 vacancies.

The answer is staring them in the face, with more than 770,000 British under-25s without a job, full or part-time college place or training course, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Critics claim some industries are hooked on cheap foreign labour and have failed to invest in modern technology or skills training.

Two-thirds of people believe the country is too reliant on workers from overseas to plug skills shortages, according to an exclusive Omnisis poll for the Sunday Express.

And an overwhelming 84 per cent say young people should be encouraged to do apprenticeships in areas where there are skills shortages.

Tory MP Craig Mackinlay said many young people would do well to resist pressure to go to university and get on an apprenticeship.

He added: “The country’s focus for too long has been degree-level education, some of limited value, while ignoring many forecastable skills shortages in well-paid careers.

“A rapid refocus is needed, as the go-to response of simply importing skills is selling our youngsters short and further burdening our national infrastructure.

“We should have zero youth unemployment, but it still remains stubbornly high.”

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Figures from the ONS show there are 40,000 building vacancies, but the Construction Industry Training Board says an additional 225,000 workers will be needed by 2027.

There is also an urgent need to find more health workers.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is calling for 60,000 more doctors, 170,000 more nurses, and 71,000 more allied health professionals such as dieticians by 2037 – even though there are already 185,000 vacancies in the sector.

The full scale of the skills shortage is laid bare in government figures.

There are 101,000 vacancies in science and technical roles, with 57 per cent of IT firms saying they are struggling to find staff.

The announcement last week that Jaguar owners Tata are to open a £4billion battery factory in Somer-set, employing 4,000 highly skilled staff and creating thousands more jobs in the supply chain, highlights the need for workers in hi-tech engineering.

Rother Valley Tory MP Alexander Stafford said Britain needed to train more people in core skills to end a dependence on foreign workers.

And he added skills in areas such as construction were as important as those gained at university.

He said: “It doesn’t matter whether you go to university or not. You’re still as good a person and you can earn decent money.”

Daniel Kawczynski, the Tory MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, said he hoped far fewer people will be recruited from abroad in the future.

He said: “We want to have more British electricians, brickies, plumbers, fruit pickers. These are worthwhile jobs and I think we’ve got into a culture that you need to go to university – but you don’t.”

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan last week announced the Government would limit the number of places on university degree courses that fail to lead to well-paid jobs, and step up measures to promote courses backed by employers.

Ms Keegan said: “There are still pockets of higher education provision where the promise that university education will be worthwhile does not hold true.”

The Government has instructed watchdog the Office for Students to draw up plans to limit the number of places on courses that do not lead to good jobs.

It was also told to investigate 18 higher education institutions, to see if they provide quality teaching.

Critics accuse the Government of trying to limit the opportunities for young people. But a Department of Education source said: “It’s not about stopping people going to university. It’s about quality of courses.”

Many students leave university with debts of between £40,000 and £50,000, the source said.

“It is quite a significant investment, both by the student and the taxpayer, and there are some places where students are not getting a good return,” they said.

“We are opening up other avenues, which often do involve universities, and are designed for working closely with businesses.”

Examples include a degree-level apprenticeship in space engineering delivered by Leicester University, to train people for jobs ranging from spacecraft manufacturing to testing satellites.

Polling by Ipsos on the topics that mattered most found immigration was the joint highest issue alongside the NHS for Conservatives and over-65s. But it was much less important to Labour supporters and the young.

Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, chairwoman of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, said: “Construction has huge skills needs.

“Employers, including many small businesses, will need to find a way post-Brexit to fill those vacancies with skilled people and get the sector growing again.

“Training many more people up through apprenticeships has to be a really good option.

“Apprenticeships can really help. They are all designed by a good mix of large and small employers, with support from IfATE, to make sure they match the economy’s needs.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “There are more high-quality training opportunities available to upskill home-grown talent than ever before.

“This includes over 670 apprenticeship standards, T-levels, Higher Technical Qualifications, Skills Boot-camps or training at one of our new Institutes of Technology.

“All these have been designed to meet the skills needs of business,
get more people into jobs and support the Prime Minister’s priority of growing the economy.”

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