July/ August 2020

Construction and engineering noted the greatest increase in vacancies of all sectors across the UK in the second week of June, according to the latest real-time statistics from the world’s largest network of job boards, Broadbean Technology. In mid-June construction and engineering reported an uptick in jobs advertised of 16% and 10% respectively. Of all new roles added during this period, the two sectors accounted for 29% of all of the UK’s hiring. This is in line with reports from Build UK, which revealed at NEWS Construction and engineering strengthen UK’s job market the end of May that 86% of construction sites in the country had reopened, with more planning to follow suit. With the sector already noting a skills shortage prior to COVID-19, this dearth of talent has been exacerbated by the number of staff unable to return to sites, pushing demand for new hires up. Alex Fourlis, managing director at Broadbean Technology comments: “Hiring across the UK as a whole has been on a real rollercoaster since lockdown started. While it’s promising that so many sites have been able to reopen so far, the challenge facing construction and engineering now is finding enough people able to return to deliver planned projects quickly. With more sites hoping to get up and running again in the coming weeks we certainly expect to see this demand grow.” Millions of skilled workers in the UK are currently prevented from working. Enginuity, a skills organisation backed by the UK’s biggest brands in engineering and advanced manufacturing, has partnered with Filtered to support the engagement of the sector’s labour force. Engage, a custom version of the magpie platform, takes seconds to suggest focus areas and builds a personalised plan from the industry’s best existing digital learning resources to grow knowledge and skills. COVID-19 has hit the world, meaning that most engineers are now working reduced hours, furloughed, or not working. In a move to continue to engage the workforce and help them grow and develop regardless, large engineering organisations and government bodies have approached Enginuity to ask for their help in providing a digital learning platform for these engineers at rest. Enginuity is a not-for-profit skills organisation with board members from companies such as BAE Systems, Rolls- Royce and Siemens, committed to using data to deliver the engineering skills of the future. Its mission is to ‘create practical solutions for individuals, educators, and engineering employers, using unmatched industry expertise and data – so engineers can change their world and ours’. Engage will do just that by steering users towards videos, articles and whole learning pathways focused on emerging engineering technologies and transferable skills like resilience and communication. It’s part of a wider suite of initiatives, including a capability academy hub for learning resources to support and quantify all aspects of engineering across digital platforms from multiple sources to help upskill and reskill workforces. It is powered by Filtered’s magpie platform and can generate a personalised skills signature – the mix of knowledge and skills most likely to equip a given individual for the future – with just three questions. This informs a transformative skills framework – tailored to Enginuity – that is used to produce playlists of recommendations that closely match the aptitude and goals of the user whilst driving organisational capability. Rapid deployment To fill these playlists, Filtered and Enginuity have curated the best digital resources and courses from the web, the existing Engage Research Hub and Enginuity’s industry partners. From start to finish, the magpie platform was rapidly deployed for testing and quickly applied machine learning to deliver its intelligently filtered content suggestions. Ann Watson, CEO of Enginuity, comments: “Working with Filtered and the magpie platform has proved to be an effective and powerful partnership. It has put a meaningfully personalised platform in the hands of engineers at rest at the very moment that they needed it. The project is a great example to show that Enginuity can be agile and responsive to create digital products to address and support the sector’s needs.” Marc Zao-Sanders, CEO of Filtered, adds: “We’re delighted to be working with Enginuity on this important project. Every industry is suffering from disruption right now, and it’s great to be able to help at-rest engineers keep their skills sharp, ready to return better than ever.” The platform is now live and available to any engineer seeking to maintain their professional competencies, whether they are furloughed, returning to or seeking new employment. To find out more about how Engage is enabling individuals, educators and manufacturing and engineering employers to develop the skills they need to succeed, watch this video of Engage in action, or try the platform for yourself. Enginuity partners with Filtered 8 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS July/August 2020 www.hpmag.co.uk Right: Ann Watson: Agility and responsiveness.