Engineers in demand, but they're hard to find

Feb 25 2009 by Graeme King, The Journal

THE company behind the design of the world’s biggest ship says it would be happy to hire more staff on Tyneside at the Swan Hunter shipyard but simply can’t find the talent required.

While Swan’s as a manufacturing yard has been closed for business since the RFA Lyme Bay was towed away from the Tyne in July 2006, the company has continued employing office-based engineers.

Swan Hunter currently has around 60 engineers in its offices working on the £1.5bn Pieter Schelte vessel for Swiss company Allseas.

The Wallsend firm is one of several around Europe working on the giant project to create a 382m long vessel, intended for decommissioning oil rigs as well as doing pipe laying work. Swan Hunter is working on the project, as has the North Shields office of Scottish company Babcock Design & Technology.

Swan Hunter owner Jaap Kroese said: “We have people doing engineering work on an offshore contract. We always knew there was going to be engineering work for this yard with the contacts we have.

“We have about 60 people and we are still recruiting. There is a shortage of skills. There are not that many engineers in the North East.

“We would like to have 250 here but they are not available. The engineering graduates from the universities go somewhere else. I don’t think they want to live in the North East. There is four to five years of office-based work. We are working on the biggest ship in the world.

“It’s a huge vessel and we are doing the lifting system and the accommodation.”