Engineering consultants Faber Maunsell are one of the "Sunday Times 100 Best Companies To Work For", but that doesn't make it immune to the industry's skills shortage. BSj finds out how its new STEP scheme aims to help tackle this

What is the STEP scheme?

STEP or the Structured Training Excellence Programme, is a new approach to attract school leavers to a career in engineering. The flexible programme combines training with hands-on work based experience and is suitable for those joining after GCSEs, AS-levels or A-levels. School leavers who join STEP will be given the opportunity to develop a career within Faber Maunsell and its parent company AECOM.

Why do you need STEP?

To sustain our future, it is important that we train and develop young talent. The skills shortage in science, technology and engineering in the UK is well recognised and to address this we're looking to attract highly talented school leavers to help us meet our ambitious organic growth targets.

Who are you looking to recruit?

We are targeting two age groups: The first is 16 years olds/post GCSE - the trainee will follow a National Certificate in the relevant discipline, working four days in the office with one day at a local college. They may then go on to study for a NVQ level 3, study for a Higher National Certificate and may be considered for sponsorship at university at a time of their choosing.

Second is 18 year olds/post A level - at this age, they have a choice. The applicants will either work for a gap year and will be considered for university sponsorship. If successful, they will have guaranteed paid work placement during eight weeks in the summer and a job when they graduate. However there are no ties and should the graduate not want to stay at Faber Maunsell, they do not have to.

The 18 year olds might not want to go to university in which case they will study for a Higher National Certificate working four days at Faber Maunsell and studying one day at a local college. The trainee may also study for an NVQ or consider other options available.

What's your target

We aim to recruit 50-100 applicants into the business in September 2007.

Importantly, what's the pay like?

STEP is a career path which can give school leavers a starting salary of £8,000 to £12,000 and then take them as far as they want to go. It is a creative alternative to a costly university education and we believe the gap year and university sponsorship will be particularly attractive to parents and young people. n

Source

Building Sustainable Design