Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
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News+ Getting the talent for AMP6 • As AMP6 projects start to materialise, companies are seeking innovative engineering to achieve efficiencies and cost savings. Great news for engineers but are there enough of them to go round as the skills gap continues across UK engineering, asks Matchtech's Stuart Minchin as he encourages firms to compete for the attentions of skilled engineers. I f you polled the general public and asked them to identify industries that are routed in engineering innovation and excellence, few would say 'water'. Yet in reality water collection, management, sewerage, drainage and flood prevention are all areas that make heavy use of engineering skills – they just do not currently have the headline- grabbing appeal of other areas of engineering such as automotive, aerospace or large scale transport and property infrastructure. The lack of industry profiling for water has been, in part, driven by industry recruitment trends; water and wastewater service providers have outsourced engineering work and project design; and so businesses have not necessarily focused on promoting and celebrating the engineering successes delivered. However, the tide is now turning. The start of the AMP6 cycle is seeing an augmented focus on engineering with controlled investment in new projects, greater interest around improving efficiencies through innovative engineering and the desire to create a long-lasting legacy for water infrastructure. Challenges This is welcome news for engineers and the water industry but of course this increased activity also presents some challenges. Key is how you recruit the necessary talent to fulfil the "...with the AMP6 timeframe shaping the strategy and focus of water service providers, the demand for candidates is surging simultaneously, meaning everyone is seeking the same skills and job profiles at once" Stuart Minchin 8 weT News MAY 2015 numerous AMP6 projects now coming online, particularly given that investment and innovation has been limited since the recession and the end of AMP4. The UK engineering sector as a whole is suffering from a significant skills shortage and attracting engineers into the water sector is requiring firms to think creatively and react quickly to secure the best candidates. In our latest Confidence Index, where we surveyed 3,500 UK engineers, including 100-plus working in the water, environment and waste, the skills shortage was recognised by more than 97% as a threat to the future of UK engineering. More specifically, 32% of these engineers identified the ageing workforce as the biggest threat to the future growth and development of the sector. They also believe the second most critical challenge is the lack of students studying STEM subjects, with 16% pointing to this as a problem. The skills gap is an issue that all engineering sectors face at the moment, but with the AMP6 timeframe shaping the strategy and focus of water service providers across the UK, the demand for candidates is surging simultaneously, meaning everyone is seeking the same skills and job profiles at once. The co-ordinated demand from service providers across the UK is exacerbating the skills shortage problem. Early contractor involvement (ECI) schemes have been adopted by some businesses to pre-empt the rush for jobs, but these firms need to raise the profile of increased investment and promote interesting projects to ensure a steady supply of skilled talent to them and for the industry. Appetite That is not to say that excellent candidates cannot be found, but it does require an open-minded and innovative approach to attracting talent. Firms need to be encouraged to compete for the attentions of skilled engineers, for the benefit of individual enterprises and the overall industry. Willingness to source people from other engineering sectors is essential, but it requires some additional investment to support the transition and train the candidate in specific skills to the water services industry. Furthermore, we know there is an appetite for transferring from other industries among UK engineers; our Confidence Index showed more than a fižh of the 3,500 engineers surveyed would consider moving into the water industry. Oil and gas engineers, for example, are well placed to transfer into the water services industry, having already worked with similar engineering principles in the extraction and processing of oil and gas. It also cannot be ignored that the global fall in oil prices over the past year has driven and continues to drive job losses. Relating to this, 'adultships' enable any engineer moving from one sector to another to train in new disciplines and techniques. They also offer a route to adults outside of the engineering sector to make a career change into engineering. Such schemes could open up the water industry to talented individuals that would have otherwise looked elsewhere. Aside from looking to other sectors for transferable talent, there is an important talent pool among female engineers who have taken career breaks to have a family. To tap into this resource and to support engineers, 'returnships' are promoted by the Women's Engineering Society (WES), mentoring programmes promoted by Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) and sponsorship programmes through the Daphne Jackson Trust, all offer practical solutions. Career break Some engineering businesses are starting to use these schemes to re-skill staff ažer a career break in a supportive employment framework. Reintroducing employees to work within a specialised pro- gramme ensures that the employer protects the quality of its workforce and also gives returning employees the confi- dence through retraining or up-skilling. We are also seeing increasing demand from engineers for more flexible working options, and they can be a particularly important deciding factor for a candidate considering more than one job or with family commitments. The water services industry is attractive to many engineers with families as, unlike oil and gas, the work is set in one UK location and does not require long stints working away from home. This means that the industry lends itself well to providing flexible working hours and the option to work from home, for example. The clients we work with are more responsive to flexible working in order to attract and retain the best talent. With a creative approach to candidate selection, service providers should be able to find the talent they need to support their work during AMP6. In the longer term, I also believe the industry will become an increasingly popular area of UK engineering, especially if providers invest in developing their own hubs of engineering excellence and transition from outsourcing engineering services, to using in-house expertise. n Stuart Minchin is head of Water & Environment at Matchtech. E: water@matchtech.com. Sourcing people from other engineering sectors will require additional investment to train candidates in specific skills to the water services industry