Why STEM graduate totals reveal little about ship-design capacity

Large STEM graduate totals can conceal shortages in particular disciplines. Software, civil and mechanical engineering qualifications do not provide the same preparation as naval architecture or marine engineering. Specialist design staff still have to be allocated between competing programmes. Applied to China, this argument gives destroyers, carriers and submarines priority over less radical frigate development. Even totals within science or engineering combine many different specialisms, so the aggregate number says little about any one design workforce. Practical maintenance skills likewise require additional training before they transfer to complex naval machinery, as the Royal Navy's skateboard-to-destroyer recruitment advertisement illustrates.