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Construction/NCEngineering
Overseas Focus Construction New Zealand, Canada, Australia
Stronger economies and a wealth of exciting projects make Canada, New Zealand and Australia attractive places to continue your career. Varya Shaw explores the opportunities
Building a rewarding careerer overseas
New Zealand In Christchurch, New Zealand you are
never more than 15 minutes from the beach. You are also in a city that is facing a totally unique construction challenge - rebuilding the central business district which was decimated by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in February this year. Simon Worthington is strategic
workforce manager at the Canterbury Development Corporation,
the
equivalent of one of England’s former regional development agencies. He says: “We’ve got massive amounts
of work - so much work the local construction workforce are going to be fairly well used up and there will still be a shortfall. We’re going to need something in the region of 30,000 additional workers over the next four to five years and they will need to be highly skilled. “We see construction activity going
on for the next 15 to 20 years. Our estimates of peak labour needs come in a couple of years’ time, are maintained for 18 months and then fall away again. “ Christchurch needs project
managers, civil engineers, structural engineers, quantity surveyors and architects for the preparatory work of assessing the damage. But soon it will need higher end construction roles. Pam McGarry, national HR director of
New Zealand’s fourth biggest construction firm Naylor Love, says British staff with their experience of big projects would be prized. A third earthquake hit Christchurch
in June - the first was in September 2010. In September the cost of the earthquakes was estimated at £9.8bn (NZ$20bn). The
12 International Careers Guide 2011
work includes reconstruction of historic and commercial buildings and eventually new buildings. Scott Watson, director of Naylor
Love, says the jobs market in Christchurch is not booming yet but is expected to rapidly accelerate. He anticipates new building will start in the new year, and build up over the next two to three years. However, there is still around 10 months of controlled demolition to be done - 400 buildings have come down and another 500 still have to be demolished. Wilson says: “Christchurch provides
a unique opportunity – it’s rare to have a chance to rebuild a central business district of a city. Nowhere else in the world would you get that chance to start from scratch. For a technical person that’s quite attractive.” Other firms managing project work
in Christchurch include Arup, Hawkins Construction, NWL Construction, and Fletcher Construction Company. Wider infrastructure work in the
region of Canterbury includes roads and water supply management. These projects are also short of staff because of the work required in Christchurch. Elsewhere in New Zealand, Auckland’s
housing shortage needs to be addressed, with demand significantly outstripping supply over the next 10 years. Naylor Love has just completed a £52m (NZ$106 million) retail development in Hamilton, south Auckland, and has just commenced another at Silverdale, north Auckland, worth around £29m (NZ$60 million) which is expected to be completed in 18 months.
Canada The opportunities in construction in
Canada are as vast as the country itself - the sector employs a million Canadians but is facing a skills shortage. A major driver for this shortage is
north Alberta, where some of the world’s largest oil sand deposits are being mined. The North American Construction
Group is one of Western Canada’s largest mining and construction contractors, and is active in north Alberta. General manager of human resources Jim Finnigan says: “We are the only major contractor doing work on every mining site in Fort McMurray, home of the oil sands.” NACG has a £61m ($100m) contract to
prepare the new Joslyn North Mine site for Total Oil. The mine is 65km north west of Fort McMurray, is worth £3.7bn ($6bn) in total and is due to open in 2017. This winter NACG will complete a project in the £90-150m range to relocate a mine for Syncrude. Janine Szczepanowski, EllisDon’s vice leadership and
president of
entrepreneurial development, says: “Right now one of the largest growth areas is Northern Alberta. All the large oil companies are there. Calgary and Edmonton are also large markets. They are both within the province of Alberta and get some spinoff growth from North Alberta, but the downside is a lot of workers are attracted away from them to North Alberta. It’s Alberta where there’s the biggest skills shortage, soonest.” EllisDon is the second biggest Canadian construction company. It has a
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