STEPS Engineers Week has kicked off with more than 900 events and 91,500 participants across the country, Engineers Ireland has reported.
The organisation is to host a ‘Global Engineers’ event for Brazilian engineers as part of a series to help professionals coming to Ireland to connect with employers and find jobs in industry.
Skills shortages major concern
As part of STEPS Engineers Week 2020, the event comes as findings from Engineers Ireland reveal that almost half of engineering organisations are targeting overseas talent and recruiting abroad as skills shortages continue to be a major concern.
The findings come as 91% of engineering leaders surveyed for the Engineers Ireland barometer report listed skills shortages as a barrier to growing their workforce.
The ‘Global Engineers’ event saw 130 Brazilian engineers get career guidance from Engineers Ireland executives and introductions to established engineering companies across the country.
To support attendee understanding, significant parts of the event relating to issues like working visas and developing CVs will be held in Portuguese. Organisations such as BAM, ORS, Arup, Entrego and Sigmar Recruitment will be in attendance.
Caroline Spillane, director general at Engineers Ireland, said: “While it is extremely positive that we have such a strong supply of Brazilian and international engineers contributing their expertise to critical Irish projects, the domestic engineering skills shortage continues to be a major concern with 91% of our industry leaders pinpointing this as a barrier to growth.
5,000 new engineering jobs
"Ireland’s strong economy and vibrant engineering industry is the platform for 5,000 new engineering jobs this year. This naturally helps us attract the overseas talent we need to drive key infrastructural projects, but this is not a sustainable framework going forward. The supply of third level engineering graduates needs to ramp up to address the skills shortage that the sector still faces.
“Global engineers coming to Ireland to work in positions which have arisen from the country’s critical skills shortage made up more than 40% of our new members last year. Our latest ‘Global Engineer’ event series celebrates these engineers who come from around the world to settle in Ireland and equips them to make a positive contribution across all our engineering disciplines.”
April marks the one-year anniversary of the expansion by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation of its Critical Skills List of Occupations to include civil, mechanical and electrical engineers with BIM capabilities, thereby allowing overseas workers to qualify for an employment permit, and facilitating the entry of skilled non-EEA (European Economic Area) workers to fill shortages.
STEPS Engineers Week highlights
- World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development and Launch of ‘Engineering 2020: A barometer of the profession in Ireland’ with David Donoghue, former Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations. Taking place in Engineers Ireland, Clyde Road on World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development- Wednesday, March 4
- Engineering Your Future Transition Year Programme – events involving students in a hands-on, fun and practical immersion into engineering at third-level in TU Dublin (Blanchardstown), DCU and ESB – All week
- Girl Guides and Brownies Engineers Week Challenge - Guides (aged 10-14) and Brownies (aged 7-10) are encouraged to work towards gaining the Guide Engineering Badge or Brownie Engineering Badge with their Irish Girl Guides Unit during Engineers Week and devise an innovative project that could be commercially produced – All week
Further Global Engineers Events by Engineers Ireland will include an Indian engineers’ event on 31 March and a South African engineers’ event on April 28.