December 2010
The UK’s first consultancy civil engineering apprenticeship was officially launched at South Thames College, London on 10 December 2010. The apprenticeship has been developed by a consortium of the UK’s top engineering consultancies including Halcrow, Mott MacDonald, Hyder, Capita Symonds, WSP and Arup, with help from Transport for London, the National Apprenticeship Service and the Institution of Civil Engineers.
The apprenticeship’s introduction comes at a time of high unemployment in London, skills gaps in key sectors of engineering, construction and IT, and a need to bring in new recruits to an increasingly ageing workforce. To help tackle the situation, the Mayor of London has set the Greater London Authority (GLA) and its supply chain a target of creating 1,000 apprenticeships a year. As one of the capital’s largest employers Transport for London (TfL) is very aware of the skills gap and set out to address it through its Strategic Labour Needs and Training programme and has embedded skills and employment requirements into many of its contracts including the Engineering and Project Management Framework (EPMF).
Halcrow, Mott MacDonald, Hyder, Capita Symonds, WSP and Arup are all appointed to the EPMF and formed a consortium to use their collective demand to create a new qualification giving young people who don’t want to, or don’t have the necessary results to go to university, the opportunity to gain a profession. The consortium worked with the Institution of Civil Engineers, the National Apprenticeship Service, the Supplier Skills Team and South Thames College to develop the qualification in time for the start of the 2010 academic year.
The consortium’s first apprentices – eight in total, three from Mott MacDonald and one each from the other consortium members – now spend a day a week in the classroom studying for the Edexcel BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment (Civil Engineering). The rest of the week is spent putting theory into practice on engineering projects. Once the apprentices complete their formal studies in 2013 and have collected evidence of their work experience, they will sit the ICE’s EngTech professional review. If successful this will result in membership status of the ICE and will be a stepping stone towards chartership.
The Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, John Hayes, is fully committed to boosting the supply of genuine, high quality apprenticeship places. “This type of employer led approach to delivering Level 3 apprenticeships is exactly the kind of action I would like to see more of,” he said.
“It is an innovative programme that has succeeded in bringing together a group of civil engineering consultancies and other bodies in a partnership that contributes to the Mayor of London’s skills and employment agenda,” commented TfL’s head of procurement Andrew Quincey.
It is hoped that the consortium will expand in 2011 to include other consultancies and so increase the number of students entering the scheme. It is also hoped that this civil engineering qualification will be replicated across England and Wales using the same consortium approach eventually providing up to 150-200 apprentices each year.