Opinion

The return of confidence

Grahame Carter, Matchtech

Matchtech operations director Grahame Carter starts a a regular series of articles for Infrastructure Intelligence with a review of
why confidence is so high among recruiters and those looking for new jobs.

In April, Network Rail announced a £38bn funding programme for improving the UK’s rail infrastructure – the next stage in the most ambitious new rail development programme for a generation.

The details of the plan involve 1360km of rail electrification, developing the Northern Hub and a significant programme of station improvements which come on top of the £50bn proposed HS2 scheme and the work already being undertaken on Crossrail.

This significant investment in the UK’s transport infrastructure is good news for the travelling public and for the UK economy, but it is also a vote of confidence in the UK’s engineering and rail industries, and a huge boost for jobs and training.

If we are to assist the Infrastructure sector via recruitment, difficult questions also need to be asked including how we improve STEM education and end the skills shortage. Having worked in the infrastructure sector for the past 15 years I can say with confidence that we are currently in the busiest period of growth, development, optimism and investment that the sector has experienced for many years. 

While youth unemployment has fallen, there are still 817,000 people aged 16-24 looking for work, and across the entire economy over two million people are still unemployed. This type of investment in infrastructure provides opportunities for those seeking to work in engineering, and for those already skilled workers looking to progress their careers.

As the economy has improved, following the 2008 financial crisis, the Government has made investing in infrastructure a key foundation for driving growth. And with a growing population, infrastructure engineering will remain a key focus for investment for the private sector.  

Matchtech’s Infrastructure division that includes engineering recruitment across Utilities, Rail, Property and Highways, Traffic and Planning has seen a 36% in revenues 2014 and we are expecting further significant growth in the coming 12 months based on the ongoing rise in engineering vacancies and jobs, and the number of candidates we are placing into these roles. 

The major infrastructure engineering projects being undertaken will rely heavily on both contract (temporary) and permanent engineering staff.  We have seen a huge shift in the infrastructure sector with recruitment moving between permanent and contract staff.  

Creating the ‘right’ balance of project specific temporary workers against permanent staff continues to cause our clients an interesting dilemma. With improved and regulated processes in place for both PAYE and limited company contractors, clients in the engineering sector can be confident that they are engaging with compliant and competent temporary workers, while driving their individual businesses as permanent employment organisations of choice. 

Over the coming months Matchtech will be writing for Infrastructure Intelligence to give its view, as leading engineering recruitment specialist, on the  news and industry developments and will answer questions such as, “what are clients looking for and does this match with what candidates can and are offering?”. You can contact Grahame at grahame.carter@matchtech.com 

Matchtech is now in its third year of conducting an annual confidence index survey with over 1,000 UK engineers to identify current views and perceptions of various industry sectors. Last year more than half (54%) said the state of the UK’s economy was negatively impacting the sector, and more than one-in-four of those questioned said they were not confident that they would continue to obtain work in the UK engineering industry. We’re about to embark on preparations for the 2015 survey and it will be interesting to see how that confidence has changed, I expect it will have done.

If we are to assist the Infrastructure sector via recruitment, difficult questions also need to be asked including how we improve STEM education and end the skills shortage. Having worked in the infrastructure sector for the past 15 years I can say with confidence that we are currently in the busiest period of growth, development, optimism and investment that the sector has experienced for many years. 

The future for engineering in infrastructure is extremely positive, major projects and continued investment from both private and public sectors will allow the production of top class engineers but also assist in keeping them in the UK.  The infrastructure engineering sector is at the forefront of a major investment in UK growth and jobs, it’s a good place to be.