Recruiters widening the skills net

London – ?With business remaining buoyant in many process sectors, employers are exploring new avenues to recruit the skilled and hard-working people needed to support their growing project activity.

The search now includes the more than 20,000 individuals who leave the armed forces each year - a figure that is set to dramatically increase as the MoD plans to make 54,000 additional redundancies before the year 2015.

Former service people leave the military equipped with specialist skills that could be readily transferred to the energy sector, according to NOF Energy, which recently teamed up with the BFRS (British Forces Resettlement Services) to stage the Military-to-Civilian Energy Careers Fair.

The event attracted hundreds of former service personnel interested in careers in the energy sector as well as training for energy sector qualifications.

“Service leavers are used to working in difficult, pressurised and potentially dangerous situations and have a strong work ethic,” said an NOF Energy spokesman. They bring a unique skill set to the workplace.”

Indeed, the armed forces teach a wide range of specialised trades and disciplines that personnel are regularly tested on. A lot of these skill sets are also found in the energy sector and former service men and women have over the years shown that they have the ability to quickly adapt to the needs of many industries.

When it comes to team-work, service personnel implicitly understands his or her roles, those of their commanding officers’ and those of their subordinates. This training, is said to provide them with team-leading, delegation and managerial skills.

“Service people are trained to achieve their objectives against all odds,” added the NOF Energy spokesman. “They are used to working to strict deadlines, with limited resources and still getting the job done. Triumphing over adversity used to be their day jobs and they could bring this level of grit and determination to a commercial company.”

There is, as yet, no equivalent event for the recruitment of people from the banking sector, but one major recruitment firm has, at least, signalled a trend that would support such an initiative.

Engineering graduates have for many years been highly regarded within the banking sector, which recognises how their disciplines and thinking can create strong and capable professionals.

Looking at the economy, though, there are numerous very strong arguments for these graduates to stay in the engineering sector, according to Mike Walker, regional director of SThree - a recruitment firm active in the financial, IT, engineering, energy, pharma and biotech sectors.
“Manufacturing is holding its own,” said Walker. “The renewable industry had $257 billion invested in it last year and there are estimated to be three million jobs globally in this sector alone.

“If you look at the unprecedented investments in oil and gas exportation and production - $1.5 trillion in the last three years - plus closer to home the UK government’s under writing of £50 billion on UK infrastructure and exports, the sector looks very promising.”

When it comes to competing with the financial sector on pay, Walker insists that the engineering sector is by no means the ‘poor relation’.
“Not if you look at some of the remuneration that is being paid,” said the SThree executive. “Contractors are commanding very high daily rates and are attracted to the sector because of the longevity of the projects and the amount of money invested,” said Walker.

It is a similar story for permanent roles, Walker noting: “At the more senior end of the markets and in specialist areas such as geoscience and drilling in oil and gas the salaries are competitive if not better.”

Indeed, SThree has reported a significant rise in its work with clients in industrial sectors such as energy and engineering sectors.
“The nature of the projects are very long-term, with significant spend and a shortage of highly skilled candidates,” said Walker. “We are placing candidates from engineer up to senior board level incorporating specialist roles within all of our markets globally.”

Nigeria project

Also braving new frontiers is Technical Training Solutions (TTS), which despite advice from the UK Foreign Office not to travel to Nigeria, has been providing training in Port Harcourt, as part of a major project to improve the employability of the local people in the Nigerian city.

With an economy growing faster than the US, the UK, Germany or France, GDP figures in excess of $270 billion, a population of 170 million and an average age of 19, Nigeria is set to become one of the world’s largest economies in the future.

This may happen sooner than anybody expects, and is likely to be accelerated by the latest initiative from Shell, Aker Solutions, Petrosmart and TTS. While the economy grows, major employers in Nigeria are looking for ways to employ more of the local people in the oil and gas industries. This has been difficult in the past given the weaknesses of the training and education sector in Nigeria.

To alleviate this problem, Petrosmart recently engaged UK-based TTS to provide training courses. So far, these have included electrical maintenance, mechanical maintenance and instrumentation.

All the equipment needed for the courses - nearly a tonne in weight - was constructed in the UK and transported by air freight to Nigeria - so that the training matched that delivered by TTS in the UK. The courses have proved successful and will be repeated in 2013 onwards.

“With the addition of the air conditioning and plumbing courses and an extended version of the building services course - so that it teaches candidates how to install a complete electrical installation, including back-up generators - the future for this superb project looks good,” said TTS.

Martin Smith and Dave Larner of TTS were the first trainers to head 3000 miles south for the first 20-day phase of training back in May 2012. By the end of July, a second phase of training was launched with the addition of Shaun Coster from the UK training company to deliver the instrumentation courses.

Plans are now under way to extend the PetroSmart training facility further by adding a second story to the building.
Meanwhile, Aker Solutions has organised a number of oil companies to deliver used plant and equipment such as pumps, pipework and valves, for students to practice their maintenance skills on.

“The skills the students have learnt and demonstrated on our standard mechanical and electrical courses have boosted the confidence of the individuals to stratospheric levels,” said Larner.

“And because of our emphasis on British and European ‘best practice’ throughout the courses, the students will be able to tackle whatever tasks PetroSmart throws at them, or at least know when a task is beyond them,” he concluded.