Skills A career in the fluid power industry in all its guises – including Altrad Sparrows’ own segments in industrial, renewables and oil and gas – has much to offer. There are exciting and varied careers to enjoy. However, our own sectors, like so many others within the fluid power industry and engineering and manufacturing in general, are currently not attracting the large volume of apprentice or trainee applicants as they did a few years ago. I believe the root cause for the current malaise is that not enough young people are getting to know about the fluid power industry and engineering in general at an early enough age. For our part, we actively engage with children at secondary schools, but it is at primary school stage that you’ve got to influence their ideas about what they want to pursue as a lifelong career. Our UK division is based in Aberdeen, so in the Scottish school system young people can go into the sixth year before leaving school and going to college. Alternatively, children can leave at the end of the fourth year to join an apprenticeship scheme when they’re 16 years old. So, if we start speaking to children after the age of 14 it could be too late to spur their interest in engineering because they might already have set their sights on another type of job or have an inkling of what they’d like to pursue as a lifelong career. Online opportunity The image these days can be that everybody wants to be a successful YouTuber or become famous on TikTok. That is of course a reflection of children’s interest in computers. However, through them being more active on social media and interested in online in general could be a key to attracting their interest in engineering. For example, my son drew my attention to a YouTube video showing a LEGO Technic excavator. It was basically a standard model, but someone had converted it into a working piece of hydraulic machinery with transparent tubes representing hydraulics hoses and showing the flowing oil and how it provides motion and force. I quickly realised that this was a great way to get children interested in our industry, by relating machinery to things they like to play with such as LEGO equipment. This could inspire them to learn more about mechanics and how to build a gearbox and other constructions. This, of course, is just one example of the type of inspirational and creative content that could be posted online. Staff development Rather than develop young talent, many companies simply poach staff from other companies. Altrad Sparrows, on the other hand, is very much a staff development company and I believe other companies should follow a similar path to keep our industry well stocked with a skilled workforce. Altrad Sparrows currently has 14 apprentices spread across different disciplines including engineering, mechanical, fabrication and engineering design We have an electrical apprentice, three hydraulic apprentices and an administrator apprentice. We also run graduate apprenticeship schemes. In fact, we currently have three apprentice design engineers who are progressing through our graduate apprenticeship scheme. So, it’s not just about hands-on technical apprenticeships, it’s also about taking things to graduate apprenticeship level, which, of course, involves a great deal of academic study as well as gaining hands-on practical experience. University partnership For office-based careers, we run scholarship schemes every year in partnership with Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. They join us as summer students and there could be a job waiting for them on successful completion of their studies. We also recruit graduates who haven’t been through our scholarship schemes. These roles cover a range of engineering disciplines across the whole business, including hydraulics. In the UK, we currently have 34 graduate engineers, and they will have the opportunity to go The importance of in-house staff development 40 www.bfpa.co.uk By Steven Reaper, Global Technical Authority – Hydraulics, Altrad Sparrows. Steven Reaper: “Early student engagement is critical.”
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