Question

Not a new problem I know but we are struggling to find engineers at the moment despite advertising widely including in Catering Insight and others etc and offering good packages.

Please could ceda ask if any members have had success in advertising for such staff in any particular media or on-line marketplace?

Replies

1. It’s always a problem that’s why we have ran an apprentice scheme for last 10 years breeding our own as such not much help in short term but it was our only way to a solution. 90% of ours are home grown as such and we’re taking on 3 more this year.
2. Have some sympathy with them. We are trying too! We have taken a couple of guys recently who are from other aspects of our industry, not sure if that is helpful.
3. Catering Insight offers no value at all for finding engineers in my opinion. We have great success using CV Bay.
4. t’s absolutely dire.  We can advertise and get not one single reply and we also desperately need two more Catering Engineers.  We can train all other types of job functions but with the syllabus for Gas, we can’t cover it all because we’re specialists and there isn’t a single college providing appropriate courses.I honestly think that’s where we should aim our efforts.  We’ve invested in the East Kilbride Engineering Training Group over the past two years for 2 Apprentices on a 26 week block training with 4 days there and 1 at a local college doing another course.  The standard of intake was really poor, and we had to put them through a Glasgow City Council scheme to get any grant contribution.  The City Council were absolutely hopeless and in the end the East Kilbride people provided names, we interviewed – they were not the standard we wanted but we decided to try because boys can be late developers and put them through the Council application afterwards to get the grant.One boy did one term and deemed it too far to travel to East Kilbride (it was costing us £8000 for the course), and the other has just completed his 2^nd year with us but is really not up to standard.  Neither will be Engineers but it was difficult to attract the right calibre for anything at 16/17.  We have taken a late Apprentice at 24 who is turning out extremely well.

   We are in the same boat for Engineers and I think possibly a route to try is to take a partly qualified guy and invest in him.  I did have that conversation at the CEDA Conference last year with someone who said that was all very well but then they went off to work for themselves.  Well, you have to take a chance all through business and some you win and some you lose.  Good luck to the member trying.

5. Had no success re media. It’s been word of mouth. Head hunting or agency.