Last Saturday I had the pleasure of being the key note speaker for the launch of this year's 'Budding Brunels' apprenticeship scheme by the Construction Youth Trust. Around seventy future engineers attended the day. These seventeen year olds came from targeted schools around London, with the aim of encouraging those who have the talent but might have been put off by the cost of further education, support from their peers or other negative forces.
There was great engagement and energy from the future Brunels who had presentations from Atkins and Balfour Beatty in the morning, a chance to quiz potential employers, and then a visit to Tottenham Court Road CrossRail site in the afternoon. It was great to see the big hitters from UK's consultants there to woo them - Atkins, Arup, Aecom, Motts, Mouchel amongst them, with Balfour Beatty being the only contractor.
It was interesting to think how an 'old bloke' like me could sell our industry to an East-End teenager. In the end I decided to focus on the pride we all have in the things we do, and the fact we actually make things. We had a great reaction and, combined with Ben Green and Jessica Elliot selling the 'Energy' of Building Services, the feedback from the CYT was they all wanted to come and work for Atkins rather than the rest! Job done!
Below are the basic notes I used to sell our industry - as normal I ranged widely from the script, but you may find then useful if faced by a roomful of hopeful teenagers!
Good morning. I could introduce myself as a structural engineer or as a design director. But that doesn’t really describe to you what I do every day.
I work for Atkins and we are responsible for designing a huge range things: buildings, roads, railways, aircraft, airports, telecommunications systems, power stations, cities. Amongst our 17000 people there will be someone who can design pretty much anything.
I am a structural engineer and I lead teams of fantastic people who make buildings. For the last 25 years I have been getting out of bed and coming into work because I find I get a huge buzz out of making things. Our clients trust us to spend huge sums of their money and we decide how to use it to best achieve the things they need and to do this we need a wide variety of types of people with widely differing skill sets.
At the start of projects we need people who are great at coming up with ideas and providing a vision. We then need people who can take that vision and create the drawings, plans and models that explain what it could look like and how it could work. We then need people with the experience and dedication and skills to create all the information required to manufacture all the components. We finally need skilled people who can make those parts and then more who can bring the glass, the steel, the concrete, the wires, the pipes, the hardware, the software together on site to make that first vision as good as it can be.
Now think back to last summer and the Olympic Opening Ceremony. The whole of the the UK engineer industry was thrilled to find we were the centre piece of the opening 'Pandemonium' section of the ceremony, with Brunel presiding over the forging of the Olympic rings in steel. Engineering has been at the heart of this country for the last 200 years and it was at the heart of delivering the most successful, most sustainable games ever. Atkins as The Olympic Engineering Provider was key to the success, but every contractor and consultant in this scheme played some role in the Olympics, and we all are thrilled with what we have achieved.
And the Olympics are not the only huge success the UK's construction industry has had recently. There has been Heathrow Terminal 5, High Speed 2, Crossrail. You are entering an industry that has more confidence in its ability do deliver what the world needs than at any time I have seen in the last 25 years.
So the word I'd like you to think about today is 'Pride'. The construction industry is hugely proud of what is has done, and what it can do. Every company here today is proud of its achievements. And if you talk to every engineer here you'll find they will be keen to tell you about their projects, their achievements - because they are proud of what they do, what they make.
And I have a huge amount of pride, perhaps even a feeling of ownership for the things I have had a hand in making. I have probably worked on hundreds of buildings but let’s pick out just a few. I missed out on working on the Olympics - I'm gutted about that by the way. But if you are going to miss your Olympics you might as well be somewhere interesting whilst our are doing it.
I was living in Hong Kong designing two stations for the South Island Line, the first railway down the south of Hong Kong Island. The team there did fantastic work snaking the route through a dense urban area. I'm also proud of the team I led in Bangalore designing many parts of the Gautrain Metro system that opened in time for the last World Cup. Huge amounts of work were done against very tight deadlines to achieve what was needed.
I could go on about towers in Bangkok and Islamabad, baseball stadia in America and glass roofs of Canary Wharf Station - but I won't.
Now I’ve just talked about all those projects as though they were mine alone. And that of course is not true. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people have contributed to each of those. And the great thing about working in this industry is that they all have that sense of pride and ownership about these buildings. Our ideas, our thoughts, our hard work are in the buildings around you and we’re proud to tell people ‘I did that’.
So my question to you is whether you would like to feel pride in your career in the future. If you would like some of that I think you are in the right place today.
Now, I am really excited by the fact this country is getting back behind the idea of apprenticeships as a route into engineering. Alongside Atkins there are some great companies involved in this Budding Brunel’s scheme here today and there is the potential for you all to become some key people in the future of construction.
So, I am really pleased that you have taken time out of your weekend to think about engineering. I hope that you’ll be excited enough to grab this opportunity. Use your time today to find out as much as you can about what engineers do and the sort of companies they work for.
We need a new generation of engineers who are going to play the central role in solving these issues. And I hope that generation is you and I hope I get the chance to work with you in the future.
