Roll out the schools campaign

With the reduction in students selecting engineering as a subject, and the ever-growing need for engineering talent in the UK, recruitment issues will remain under the spotlight.

The industry therefore needs to wake up to the fact that we can't continue to ‘steal’ each other’s employees. Instead, we need to work together to find ways of encouraging more people into engineering.

Although Hoare Lea has worked informally with schools for many years, we now want to step up our game and feel that, by increasing employee involvement, we can make a much greater impact. To this end, Hoare Lea has recently launched a campaign called Adopt a School.

Employees who volunteer to take part in the scheme will be partnered with local secondary schools, with the aim of promoting engineering as a career, and assist young people to make informed choices by encouraging a greater understanding of what construction, engineering, and building services are about.

The interest shown by our employees so far has been fantastic – Hoare Lea has some of the best people in the industry and, through their enthusiasm, we hope to convey the exciting opportunities a career in engineering can offer.

We believe that investing time in promoting engineering as a career choice is good for young people, Hoare Lea and the wider industry. In addition to our own initiatives, we would be pleased to have the opportunity to be involved in the pan-industry campaign targeted at schoolchildren that you suggest is necessary, and would welcome the establishment of a suitable forum that could take this forward.

Natasha Cragg, head of recruitment and retention, Hoare Lea