AN engineering firm is targeting promising young graduates in a bid to address the skills shortage and cope with demand as it continues to secure new contracts.
Billingham-based ABB Consulting grew by 15% last year and hopes to maintain double-digit growth for years to come, but the company has warned future growth could be hampered if the shortage in skilled workers is not overcome long term.
The firm has a worldwide reputation as a leader in process safety, providing technical consulting and engineering services to customers in the chemical, petrochemical, oil and gas, power, pharmaceutical, metals and consumer industries worldwide.
Last year ABB expanded its workforce by 42 and, as it now provides technical and engineering services to clients in the UK, US, Asia and the Middle East, the firm is looking to further strengthen its workforce.
The firm, which had a turnover in 2012 of ?41.9m, filled a number of graduate and apprenticeship positions last year and there is growing demand for its engineering expertise across a range of fields including process safety, improving operational performance and its experience in safely extending the life of ageing plants.
ABB managing director Neil Blackhall explained how the firm is tapping into the talents of future engineers by targeting prestigious university courses, as well as teaming up with CTP, the Career Transfer Project, to take on former armed forces workers with extensive engineering experience.
?The first thing to say is that this is good news ? I would rather we had this problem than not having enough work and having to lay people off, so this is all positive,? said Neil.
?Our turnover was ?41.9m last year, we grew by 15% last year, this year we are targeting to grow by 10% and the expectation is to grow in the double digits into 2014.
?Our team based in Teesside is at the cutting edge of safety, performance and compliance operating in the petrochemical, oil and gas and power industries across the globe.
?We?re constantly on the lookout for new recruits, and while we?ve got a strong apprenticeship programme which will launch later in the year, we?re particularly interested to hear from experienced engineers who can contribute at the leading edge of the business.
?Ideally we want a graduate engineer who can almost immediately be used for work with customers, and we are targeting these type of people, either by them moving from their current employer or coming us to from a firm which has closed, but obviously most engineers are in employment and quite happy.
?So, we have been proactively going into leading courses, such as here in Newcastle and Teesside and in Cambridge, Loughbrough and Manchester, specifically to talk about what a great place we are to work for.?
In the future, ABB plans to take on 12 or 13 university graduates and eight former armed forces engineers, to work in the North East and North West. Two apprentices are currently halfway through a four-year scheme, and another two will be taken on once their apprenticeships are completed.
Blackhall added: ?Although the process industry in the North East does not employ as many as it used to, at least the skills developed a number of decades ago are now being redeveloped and refined in active industry.?
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