Balfour Beatty has featured in Construction News, exploring how the company is actively training a new generation of overhead power workers to help tackle the construction and infrastructure industry's well-documented skills shortage and to meet the demands of tomorrow, as the UK moves towards creating a greener energy grid.
Construction News visited Balfour Beatty’s training hub in Raynesway, Derby, to scale the training towers, find out more about the company's unique Overhead Line Technician Trainee Programme and how it's powering up the number of overhead line experts in the industry.
The programme, which is two years long and divided into modules, provides trainees with safety critical core and mandatory expertise as well as the necessary qualifications to jump-start their careers, so that they are able to help deliver on the vast number of energy transmission projects in the pipeline.
Talking about the training provided, Vernon Poppleton, Trainee Overhead Line Technician, said: “What attracted me is that it's future-proof, because electricity is a big thing that's going to get bigger. Also, there's progression to work your way up.”
Discussing the company’s proactive steps to address the deficit facing the industry, Vince Balfe, Head of Operations Support, explains: “Industry-wide for the transmission network, there’s probably 800 people in the country with the ability to do the job... We want the number at Balfour Beatty alone to increase to 800 by 2027/28.”
Read the full article on pages 32-36 here. Or find out more about the careers Balfour Beatty offers here.
ENDS
Media enquiries to:
Mohsin Sufi
Balfour Beatty
+44 (0)203 810 2345
www.balfourbeatty.com | follow us @balfourbeatty
All non-media related enquiries should be directed to +44 (0)20 7216 6800 or info@balfourbeatty.com
Notes to editors:
- Balfour Beatty is a leading international infrastructure group with over 26,000 employees driving the delivery of powerful new solutions, shaping thinking, creating skylines and inspiring a new generation of talent to be the change-makers of tomorrow.
- We finance, develop, build, maintain and operate the increasingly complex and critical infrastructure that supports national economies and deliver projects at the heart of local communities.
- Over the last 114 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world. Currently, we are working to deliver Hinkley Point C, the first UK nuclear power station in a generation; constructing the world-class arts and cultural facility, the Lyric Theatre, in Hong Kong; and designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining the Automated People Mover superstructure at one of the busiest airports in the world, Los Angeles International Airport.
- Balfour Beatty’s Power Transmission & Distribution teams work with regional, national and international electricity network owners and operators to provide technical engineering solutions across the full spectrum of the electricity grid, including overhead lines, cabling, substations and distribution networks. From scoping and feasibility, to design, construction and on-going maintenance, our in-house experts, flexible resources and industry-leading innovations support clients in the development of some of the UK’s most ambitious power transmission and distribution projects.
Image: Journalist, Toni Sekinah, climbing one of Balfour Beatty's training towers
