RECRUITMENT
We met up with Kip Morton who is pioneering the recruitment of forces personel into the wind energy industry and thought it deserved some coverage.
A FORCE FOR GOOD
PRINTED MAGAZINE FEATURES • General recruitment advice • Regular articles from relevant experienced individuals
• Helpful practical articles to help both employers and employees make the right decisions
ONLINE WEBSITE DEDICATED RECRUITMENT SECTION – UPDATED FREQUENTLY • Employer section for advice, potential candidates etc
• Employees section for advice on CVs, interview techniques etc
• Employer access to place positions quickly
• Employees access to view available positions
The online version will be updated frequently thus reacting quickly to the urgent growth nature of the industry.
The Strategic Defence and Spending Review announced in mid October has indicated some large scale personnel losses from the Armed Forces and from an individual’s perspective within the services this is a time of great uncertainty. The wind sector is a popular choice for technical and engineering personnel looking for a second career, but there is a lack of guidance which makes the transition uncertain and somewhat haphazard.
I set up Forces4Energy in mid 2009 after leaving the RAF after a 12 year commission only to find the energy sector something of a closed shop and a very difficult industry on which to gain a foothold. The last 18 months has been spent distilling energy sector feedback to come up with a list of qualifications and courses that are useful and valued by industry.
One of the limitations is that each contractor or OEM has its own requirements and there is no baseline of qualifications and skills equivalencies which help those trying to break into the wind industry, so a bespoke and company by company approach needs to be taken, yet so far there are few who are willing to engage in this process. This is worrying due to the large CAPEX projects due to start in the coming years (Crossrail, New Nuclear) and a resurgent Oil and Gas sector which will reduce the skills pool at a time when the wind industry will need skilled personnel for Round 3 expansion.
As an employer there are significant costs associated with new hires in terms of training burden and for each £1 spent on courses an additional £2 is often spent on additional, non productive items (pay, food, travel and accommodation). With knowledge of the Military Funding streams available to service leavers, much (if not all) of the expense of training can be offset by the service leaver before they have even left the services. This process does require planning and a strategic outlook, but the rewards to service leavers is a simple and agreed process for transitioning into the wind industry. The employer reduces their training burden in both cost and time and they will be employing highly trained, disciplined engineers with a wide breadth of experience who have been trained to a standard agreed by the employer.
With the help of Forces4Energy, service leavers can start to align their training and qualifications and be reassured by the fact that an employer has selected them for their skills and capability at such an early stage. When training costs do nothing but affect the bottom line, surely minimising these losses can only make good business sense?
Kip Morton Forces4Energy
kip@forces4energy.co.uk
Wind Energy NETWORK
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