http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14823042

Madness. There’s loads of engineering work, especially in the north east england and scotland, mainly in the power (oil/gas/renewable/nuclear) industry.

Place I’m at is looking out for FEA/CFD mechanical and structual engineers (get in touch) and I know must of the companies in the supply chain to BP, Esso etc are recruting like crazy but can’t find the staff.

Are they all recruiting grads to train up or looking for experienced people?

That’ll learn ’em! Should have done media studies

Not as simple as that though is it? An engineering degree generally doesn’t actually mean you’re ready to just slot into an engineering job – you need to learn how to do the job in the real world so to get to that point, you need to be mentored and given time to learn. What companies are short of is people ready to do the job straight away.

As above. Most places want 3D cad experience, ANSYS experience, experience of manufacturing engineering, process control, programming…..blah blah.

Last time I was looking for a new job, most of the job descriptions looked like they’d been written more as a list of every available skill an engineer COULD have.

But the CBI, which represents British businesses, said employers still complained of a shortage of suitably qualified and employable candidates.

The CBI’s director for education and skills policy, Susan Anderson, said: “The latest CBI survey shows that the shortage of science, technology, engineering and maths graduates is an issue for businesses, but companies also raised questions about the quality of Stem graduates coming through, many of whom were lacking in practical workplace experience or employability skills.

“It’s crucial for graduates of all disciplines to do work experience and develop skills like team-working and self-management to have the best possible chance of finding a job.”

I graduated with a BEng in Civil Engineering from Newcastle last year and I was the only one who went straight into a job in Engineeering. I applied to loads and loads of jobs too so I know from first hand experience how hard it is to get a job in engineering at the moment.

Ideally experienced people, but the people I’ve spoken to have realised there’s a gap in the skills base due to engineering being very unfashionable to study a few years back.
So there’s no choice but look to the future and train people up (grads are cheap too)

By all accounts, the current “oil boom” in the north sea is going to last about 15 years…

It might not be madness. The 20-25% mentioned in the article may be graduates with 3rds or non-honours. Few people would want to employe them even when desperate for an engineering graduate.

experience

Or lack thereof, is the problem, when I graduated it was a problem that I had, despite having worked in an engineering environment (and had an engineering placement) I was not experienced enough for most of the jobs listed and the competition for the few graduate positions offered was mental.

I was lucky enough to find a job that I was actually specialised to do and were looking for a graduate…

Crispo – it took me a while to find my first job (several years ago), but that was partly due to being blinkered about “other” opportunities in engineering. I wanted to design fast cars and that was that. Should have gone to more grad recruitment fairs…

I wish the news would focus more on the lack of development being offered by companies than the supposed lack of skilled potential employees.

It seems to have been almost a daily mantra by the CBI since I can remember to complain about the lack of a skilled workforce, why aren’t they doing something about it if its a problem? its bad management and lack of planning within organisations that’s the problem, not the available workforce.

i applied for around 200 jobs when i came to look for work as an engineering grad – with hands on with tools and managerial experiance – in a different field but still experiance.

finally got one as an operations engineer. – not ideal but its paying the bills giving me time in chunks rather than dribs and drabs.

from looking round at alot of my friends who graduated at the same time – those that are flexible in their work have jobs – those that want want want dont have jobs ….

always like to hear the CBI complaining about how education does not produce exactly what they want from people. Have they thought about training their own staff rather than complaining that taxpayers done provide exactly what they require for free.
Sandwich degree courses dried up as employers dont offfer placements. Companies now want paying to take people [ freee workers] on placements and demand some serious money – we used to do it but it is very expensive these days due to the fees companies want.

Place I’m at is looking out for FEA/CFD mechanical and structual engineers (get in touch)

Looking for consultancy services to fill the gap? 😉

The CBI:

Could all you school leavers kindly totter off and get yourselves in £50 grands worth of debt please, then I can turn around tell you that you don’t have the appropriate skill set!

Erm… yes… as a matter of fact I did benefit from a free university education and entered a job market with virtually full employment, with no debt hanging around my neck

In my experience as an engineering graduate, an engineering graduate isn’t much use until 2-3 years into a role, the shortage of people is in the 3-10 years experience range.

There is not much point employing graduates unless you have experienced people to train them up and share their specific and real world knowledge.

On a second note I’d second bandito, uni’s and industry need to work harder to demonstrate the job options to students, I also wanted to design fast cars and that was that and got pretty disheartened when I realized it wasn’t going to happen.

I wanted to build skyscrapers……..im resurfacing motorways!

But at least im with a company now that are giving me oppurtunities to develop and get all the relevant experience to start working towards becoming accredited with the ICE!

I did notice there was very few summer placement when I was looking for jobs. In the end I worked 6 weeks for nothing just to get some experience. I know people say it but i really think that the recession dried up alot of construction work and therfore companies werent as keen to hand out paid summer placments and as many graduate training jobs.

Fresh graduates don’t have real-world skills shocker!

bristolbiker – we ARE the consultancy! Loads of work on as our customers don’t want to pay for the in-house skillset.

I graduated 2 years ago from the University of Bath, also with a BEng in Civil Engineering.

Was offered 3 jobs at the time, and went with Balfour Beatty in the end, though just about to hand in my notice to travel through Africa.

bristolbiker – we ARE the consultancy!

LOL – We’re busy with oil and gas work as well at the moment, mostly on R+D rather than field work. Not exactly our core client base, but it is paying the bills nicely.

We have just taken on a few graduates, i asked one of them how many jobs he’d applied for before getting this one. 160! 😯

Then when he realised we supplied oil and gas companies he wasn’t too happy. 😀

I wish the news would focus more on the lack of development being offered by companies than the supposed lack of skilled potential employees.

100% agree with that.

When I left Uni a number of years back, everything was looking for about 2yrs of actual work experience of a previous job and skill set. Companies just didn’t seem prepared to pony up the time to develop younger persons, yet still whinge at the lack of suitable candidates.

Ian – have you managed to get your IEng before you leave or will you be coming back and apply for grad positions again, or is Civils not really for you?

stumpy01 – Member
As above. Most places want 3D cad experience, ANSYS experience, experience of manufacturing engineering, process control, programming…..blah blah.

Last time I was looking for a new job, most of the job descriptions looked like they’d been written more as a list of every available skill an engineer COULD have.

This is true, I’m not a Engineer but an Applied Mathematician so a fair overlap in industry. Recently job hunting and the list of wants was a fantasy list then £25k, not for a graduate position either.

RE work experience when I was at uni I tried to get applicable work experience during the summer but couldn’t get any local, I couldn’t work for free, I had to earn money over the summer to pay for some of the year.

Place I’m at is looking out for FEA/CFD mechanical and structual engineers (get in touch) and I know must of the companies in the supply chain to BP, Esso etc are recruting like crazy but can’t find the staff.

What sort of fluid work are they wanting? Someone to work with set software packages or someone modelling flows from scratch? I might be interested but will be unable to move for 6 month or so.

ir_bandito – Member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14823042

Madness. There’s loads of engineering work, especially in the north east england and scotland, mainly in the power (oil/gas/renewable/nuclear) industry.

Posted 5 hours ago # Report-Post

But please explain how to get a job, with no experience, just classroom based learning.

Place I’m at is looking out for FEA/CFD mechanical and structual engineers (get in touch) and I know must of the companies in the supply chain to BP, Esso etc are recruting like crazy but can’t find the staff

Do you work for OGN by any chance? A few lads I have worked with in the past have moved over to the hardrian yard, they are paying very good rates atm. One lad has gone contract draughting and has been told the job is there for at least five years.

We do civil and structural consultancy work for another outfit on the south of the river. Normally they would fabricate two or three modules a year but this year alone have seen 5 load outs and we are currently in the ground for another.
There is a huge push in renewables and the background professions are all stretched, particularly in the NE.

Well if you need any freelance composite analysis (ANSYS etc) doing in the mean time give me a shout.

if you need any doors hanging then give us a shout.

Thebrick and AndlyL, if you want any info, drop me a line. Composite analysis in Ansys is something we’ve had a few customers enquire about.

kevj, no, I’m based in Hexham. Used to work for IHC EB when they were at Hadrian Yard (although I was mainly office based once they got “big”)

please explain how to get a job, with no experience, just classroom based learning

If the classroom-based learning doesn’t include any “real” experience, either hands-on in a workshop, or industry based, make sure you do something sensible like summer or year placements. The graduates we employ mainly came from placements in previous years. Uni careers advice is a good place to start, believe it or not, they WANT to get you into work…

you’re in trouble there. They showed how to hang a door on To build or not to build today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b014gsq9/To_Build_or_Not_to_Build_Series_2_Episode_4/

And this is why you do an apprenticeship in engineering. You gain the college qualifications + workplace skills which can progress you to Uni.

Plus, theres a decent chance of a job at the end.

I know loads of engineering grads from university, over half of them now work abroad.

But please explain how to get a job, with no experience, just classroom based learning.

Well what I did was to fill in applications forms, go for interviews, get quite a few knock backs, then finally be offered a job. In fairness there was a fair number of years ago but plenty of companies that I’ve worked for take on a number of engineering graduates every year. Some from previous placements, some straight from Uni.

Back to the original story though, how many of those graduates actually want to work in engineering? In my class at uni there were quite a few people (at least 10%) who decided that a carrer in engineering wasn’t for them so they went to work elsewhere. It didn’t stop them working to get their degree though.

The most succesful guy off my engineering course is the keyboard player in The Kaiser Chiefs…

pfft! they’ll never come to owt…
anyway.

The report says: “Perhaps, because of recent initiatives, there seem to be too many people studying science for the labour market to cope with, or perhaps graduates are no longer of sufficient quality.

rather seems to conflict with:

The report also suggests attempts to encourage more people to study science, technology, engineering and maths (“Stem subjects”) have not proven successful.

don’t think i’d be paying too much attention to that load of made up stuff report.

Place I’m at is looking out for FEA/CFD mechanical and structual engineers (get in touch) and I know must of the companies in the supply chain to BP, Esso etc are recruting like crazy but can’t find the staff.

are you/they offering crap graduate salaries for positions that deserve at least £30k? And would almost certainly require the succesfull applicant to re-locate*.

*someone with the skills you want is not fresh out of uni. They’ll have wives/husbands/kids/houses/a great circle of friends they don’t want to leave/disrupt. and seeing as the north-east is an area of low population, the people you want probably don’t live there already. You need to offer more money, or full training and better-than-average pay to a few graduates who’re happy to move to the quietest place in the universe.

what? – i’m just saying…

ahwiles – our company has exactly the same problem…. recruiting PLC/SCADA Siemens/Allen-Bradley Engineers.

Unfortunately, I suspect it’s the salary they are offering – I don’t know if it’s good/bad/average or taking the piss.