2 minute read
Editorial
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EDITORIAL
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Promoting careers
This month we continue our look at the security installer skills shortage and what the trends are for engineers and employers in a busy recruitment market
Everyone reading this magazine will be aware of the skills shortage in the security installation sector; it’s no secret and has been public knowledge for some years. Trades are just not trendy careers at a time when people want to be social media influencers, app developers or celebrities.
Times change; as we have all become more au fait with using a keyboard, smartphones and computers the jobs market and school leavers’ ambitions have altered to an increasingly IT savvy world. Take for example all of those people who left school, went to secretarial college and then onto an office with dreams of being the PA or secretary to the top brass. Now that we can all type our own emails that go out instantly, who needs a typist for a posted letter? As technology changes, it changes what we end up doing with it and roles evolve.
Along the same lines, thanks to the pandemic many more people are working from home and the skills required to do jobs that don’t require a PC are disappearing. The post-war generation were proficient in DIY, general car maintenance and house repairs, whereas today those abilities are becoming scarce. Once you start providing equipment with fitted plugs, people don’t learn to fit one. When was the last time you opened a car bonnet and saw something that looked like an engine? Technology advances change what we need to do and what we are able to do.
So why wouldn’t anyone want to join the security installation sector for a career in fitting systems? As we’ve discussed previously, this sector is full of sexy stuff - we’re inundated with AI, networks, analytics, apps etc so that’s got to be attractive. Perhaps older readers might suggest that the younger generation doesn’t want a career in which they could be called out at all hours or where the company car is actually a van. Many of the apprentices at the recent Next Generation event said that they entered the sector not because of the kit they get to play with or the attraction of a company van but because they already know someone in the trade who told them about the career security, the earning potential and the satisfaction that comes from doing a good job for the customer.
Ask yourself, how did you get into this sector? Yes there will be some who moved in from alternate trades such as electricians, but word of mouth means that we all have a role to play in promoting the sector as one that is a worthy lifetime career. It’s not like journalism, as the joke goes: How did you get into journalism? Same as everyone else, I failed all my exams at school and fell in with the wrong crowd.
We can all do our bit to raise awareness of the value of installers and the career path for talented engineers.
