National Grid is hoping to switch young people in the East Midlands on to a career in engineering after identifying a major skills shortage which needs to be filled by 2020.
The company, the UK’s largest utility, has identified a gap of nearly 1,000 engineers by the end of the next decade. Despite running successful graduate and apprentice schemes, it’s still predicting a shortfall in numbers.
The company has been training electricity engineers for nearly 20 years at its national training centre at Eakring, Nottinghamshire, and now also provides training for gas engineers too.
The centre has always been a leader in training engineers for the industry, providing state-of-the-art training tools such as the 3D learning suite, as well as its own pylons, overhead lines and a substation for engineers to practice on.
Research published today by the company has shown that young people are deterred from following engineering careers by negative perceptions of the job. The report “Engineering Our Future” shows that people view engineering jobs as menial and blue collar, seeing engineers as people in overalls who fix things, rather than professionals with the ability to design complex processes and run highly technical operations.
Steve Holliday, chief executive of National Grid said: “This report makes extremely worrying reading for me. Engineers are at the heart of our business. Our current level of “growing our own” through graduate and apprentices schemes will just not fill this gap. We need a bigger pool of talented young engineers – not a shrinking one.
“In common with many engineering-based industries nearly one third of our existing workforce can retire between now and 2020.
“We have to turn round these negative perceptions about engineering and get young people to see it as an important, rewarding and secure career. The challenge of rebuilding the gas and electricity networks to handle renewable energy is facing us now and we need people who can design, plan and operate these systems. “
Caroline Opiyo, a graduate now working with the Electricity Alliance in Nottingham, said: “You are given a great level of responsibility from the very start. The job is very challenging but the rewards are great – there is scope for career progression and the pay and benefits package is excellent.”
This perception of the industry is not shared by most people. National Grid’s research shows that only 6 of out 10 young people could name a recent engineering achievement and parents and teachers were unsure about where engineers work and how to get into engineering. There was also low appreciation of the contribution that engineering makes to society making it almost “an invisible industry”. And for every 10 boys who would consider a career in engineering, there was only one girl.
Steve Holliday said: “This report has prompted a major review of our education and skills policy. We have to begin to inspire children at a younger age about the possibilities of what science and engineering can do and then keep engaged until they are at the point of thinking about their future careers.”
For more information on career opportunities for school, college and university leavers, go to www.nationalgrid.com and click on careers.
For details of the report go to: http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Media+Centre/PressReleases/Documents/EngineeringOurFutureReport.htm
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For further media information only contact Stephanie van Rosse, National Grid Media Relations, on 01455 23113