In today’s competitive job market, finding skilled electrical engineers can be a challenge. Pioneer Safety Group’s Head of HR, Katy Tyrrell, understands this better than most.

In this exclusive interview, she shares how the Pioneer Safety Group is on a mission to charge up opportunities for young people, focusing on strategies to find and nurture new talent in the field of electrical engineering. Join us as we delve into the Group’s approach to creating the next generation of engineers.

Q: You’ve said previously Katy, recruiting Electrical Engineers can be like ‘trying to find unicorns’. Why do you think this is?

Katy: We are fortunate enough to be able to attract and retain the right people across the Pioneer Safety Group for most roles, but it can take a while to find good candidates for some of the positions we offer.

For example, there is a massive skills shortage in Electrical Engineering. From what we understand, this follows a drop in electrical skills for the last 20-30 years, which appears to be more pronounced in the regions in which we operate.

In the UK for example, tracking the history of apprenticeships is partly to blame, and their decline during the 1980s and 90s. That’s left a huge generational gap, so we find that there are more Electrical Engineers available who are at the end of their working life and looking to retire or slow down, or they are entry level and don’t have the level of experience needed.

There has also been a surge in the need for electrical engineers to help with the energy transition and development of new technologies within the automotive and other technology sectors. Such businesses with well-known brands can often be more attractive to engineers when compared to more niche industrial brands such as those in the Pioneer Safety Group.

Q: You mention women in engineering – do you believe there are still challenges here?

Katy: There still appears to be a challenge attracting women into engineering roles. I believe that this is because from an early age, it seems that most girls are encouraged into humanities and artistic subjects and lack the motivation to pursue STEM subjects. Meanwhile boys gravitate to maths and science, which of course is a generalisation, but one that translates into the workplace.

At Pioneer Safety Group, we encourage young women to embrace these subjects and join our assessment days. The reality is that there are so many opportunities in the manufacturing and engineering sector, male or female.  What counts is ability, but we are often limited by the number of women who apply for the roles.

There is no reason why women can’t do these manufacturing and engineering jobs, but I believe it will take a generation of cultural change in society before we start seeing women join these industries in great numbers.

For Pioneer Safety Group, we are lucky enough to have many women in so many different roles across each operation, and we only expect to see the numbers grow.

Q: What is Pioneer Safety Group doing to address the talent shortage?

Katy: We have put a lot of focus on increasing our pool of younger talent to help address the talent shortage I mentioned, and bolster our more experienced workforce of highly talented individuals. All our businesses are unique and require a lot of in house training and on the job experience, so it’s important that we are training a new generation.

For many years we have been running a very successful apprenticeship programme and this year at Pyroban, for example, we have had a record number of applicants for Electrical Technician apprenticeship programme with nearly 100 great applicants.

We also partner with local schools to offer work experience opportunities to showcase our industry and encourage young talent to pursue careers in manufacturing and engineering.

Not only have we focused on attracting new young talent, we have made opportunities for experienced roles more attractive, while also developing the workplace culture with improvements to health and wellbeing programmes and more. This includes wellbeing initiatives with a focus on mental health. Each operation also encourages diversity and actively encourages teams to work together and collaborate.

Q: You’ve had great success with your apprenticeship program, can you tell us more about that?

Katy: We’ve had so many great apprentice success stories. The most notable recently was Matt who joined the Pyroban team as an Electrical Technician. Matt quickly moved into supporting our Zone 2 product line and over the course of two years his ability and commitment fueled his progression to our Zone 1 product line, which is at the pinnacle of skill requirement at Pyroban.

Today, having completed his apprenticeship followed by an HNC in general engineering and gained more specific experience, Matt has become a junior electrical engineer creating electrical drawings using AutoCAD  for vehicles going into Zone 2 hazardous areas.

With a pool of young talent in our workforce we have also focused on our culture to ensure that we are engaging and retaining a strong workforce and providing the workplace culture that the younger generation expects. It’s important that industrial businesses like ours help this next generation thrive and give them a sense of belonging, and purpose as part of a community. Health and wellbeing is an important part of that, but not just for young people, everyone is benefiting by the change in workplace culture.

Q: In your opinion, what are the advantages of taking an apprenticeship over pursuing a university education?

Katy: The apprenticeship programme is truly vocational giving apprentices the practical skills and experience needed in the workplace rather than relying on the theory.  What’s great is that they are not only learning, they are also earning a salary. This is very different to a University education that can clock up huge amounts of debt over six months of a year for three or more years, and not always give the real world experience needed for some roles.

At the age of 16, apprentices can leave school and earn nearly £20,000 pa while learning and developing skills that go towards a formal qualification. So by the age of just 19 after three years of apprenticeship programme they could be earning £30,000pa while their peers are just going off to university and starting a cycle of debt.

At Pyroban, we are committed to developing talented young people, which in turn helps bolster our workforce of the future. With our 50 year heritage, we know that we cannot succeed with an ageing workforce and need a steady stream of young talent with new ideas, passion and skills.

Q: Last question Katy, why would a budding engineer, or indeed a seasoned one, want to work for Pioneer Safety Group?

Katy: We regularly receive feedback from team members across the Pioneer Safety Group that they enjoy being part of a business that genuinely does something good.

The Pioneer Safety Group has a clear purpose of protecting people, their investment and our environment which truly resonates with all employees. It’s something that all employees connect with alongside opportunities and our commitment to support personal growth.  Every employee gets a personal development plan and regular feedback which helps set a pathway for their growth in combination with many other financial, health and wellbeing benefits.

Read Katy’s profile.