HEALTHCARE ESTATES 2019 KEYNOTES
Ensuring a competent and capable future workforce
The key role that the organisation plays as the regulatory body for the UK engineering sector, and some of the existing formal requirements for registration as an Engineering Technician, Incorporated, or Chartered Engineer, or Information and Communications Technology Technician, as well as the future of engineering education, and the need for the sector to ‘innovate to develop future engineers’, were the subject of a Healthcare Estates 2019 conference presentation by the Engineering Council’s CEO, Alasdair Coates, in October. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
Alasdair Coates gave his conference presentation on the first morning of last October’s Healthcare Estates 2019 event, immediately following a keynote from Simon Corben, director and head of Profession, NHS Estates and Facilities at NHSE/NHSI (HEJ – November 2019), in which the latter discussed some of the work and achievements of his team over the previous year. In his conference address, speech, Simon Corben stressed the importance of a stable, able, and adaptable workforce in meeting some of the changing challenges facing an ever- more technology-enabled NHS. All the keynote presentations on the 2019 IHEEM conference’s first morning in fact had a strong workforce and career development- related theme. The presentation from the IFHE’s President, Darryl Pitcher – which followed that of Alasdair Coates (see HEJ – November 2019) – focused on recent work by the Institute of Healthcare Engineering, Australia, to develop an online system via which the country’s healthcare engineering and healthcare estates management personnel can record their key ‘on-the-job’ learnings, and thus demonstrate their competence and all-round skills in a broad range of different estates and engineering-related activities against certified standards.
Water and transportation background Alasdair Coates BEng (Hons) MSc, CEng, FICE, MCIHT, CMIOSH, has over 40 years’ experience in the planning, design, management, and implementation of infrastructure projects both in the UK and internationally, with a particular focus on water and transportation projects, predominantly in the consulting sector. Joining Halcrow Group in 1987, he held a number of senior roles, including Group Board director, managing director, Transportation, and Regional managing director for Europe. In 2011 Halcrow was acquired by CH2MHill, and he played a key role in the successful integration as the company’s Infrastructure International
registrants on our register’. He told delegates: “As Pete Sellars explained when he introduced me, I have had some 40 years in engineering, and particularly engineering consultancy, working on a range of projects.” The speaker explained that he was a civil engineer by background, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers. He added: “I am also a member of MIOSH, so my career experience and expertise encompass all of the general richness you get in engineering.”
Alasdair Coates took up the role of Engineering Council CEO in March 2017, having been a registered Chartered Engineer with the Engineering Council for 30 years.
operations director, before joining Network Rail in 2015 as Route managing director, South East.
He became Engineering Council CEO in March 2017, having been a registered Chartered Engineer with the Engineering Council for 30 years. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE), a Member of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT), and a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (CMIOSH).
Insight into organisation’s role The Engineering Council CEO told the audience as he began his presentation that his aim would be to give them ‘some insight’ into the Engineering Council, ‘i.e. what we do, and what we’re actually about, and how our role impacts upon not just the professional engineering institutions, but also members and
He was often asked, when ‘out and about’, about the Engineering Council’s ‘role and remit’, and believed there were ‘a few misconceptions’ about what it does, which he would be looking to address in setting out some of its key functions and responsibilities. “I will also,” he explained, “be touching on the extremely important matter of how we maintain competence, and how education and innovation link in with that competence. If we don’t set the right standards, and get that next generation coming through with the right enthusiasm and belief, then it will be harder, as we move forward, to meet future employers’ needs.”
Professional ethics
As in many other areas of business and industry, professional ethics were key in engineering; this was an area on which the Engineering Council provided guidance to institutions and registrants, and would be another topic covered. Alasdair Coates said he would also be highlighting some of the key benefits of professional registration. “In essence,” he said, “many of the areas I am about to cover will tie in well with the theme of this year’s Healthcare Estates event, ‘Where Innovation, Technology, and Leadership Meet’. Alasdair Coates explained that – as the regulatory body for the UK engineering profession – the Engineering Council set and maintained the associated international standards, i.e. the UK Standard for Professional Engineering
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