HMK flies the flag for engineering during National Careers Week

HMK is backing National Careers Week by encouraging young people to consider a career in engineering.

National Careers Week runs from March 2 – 7 and we’re flying the flag for engineering in a bid to help plug the skills gap.

Currently, the UK engineering sector is experiencing a widening skills shortage with a recent Government study revealing 186,000 skilled recruits are needed every year until 2024 in order to address the shortage.

Gary Kitchin, Managing Director at HMK Automation Group, said: "Nationally, there's been a real drive within the education system to encourage young people to study STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in a bid to help address the growing skills shortage within the engineering sector.

“Careers in engineering are constantly evolving as new technologies are developed, so it provides an exciting and varied career path for young people, offering a wealth of opportunities and benefits.”

HMK runs a successful apprenticeship and training programme to ensure our workforce is equipped with the essential technical skills as well as practical experience.

Nathan Jenks, aged 23, joined HMK last summer as an Applications Engineer and is supported to study for an HNC in Electrical Engineering alongside his job.

Nathan explained: “Growing up, I had always wanted to be an electrical engineer and before I joined HMK I’d been working in a technical sales role, but I realised I was missing that technical foundation.

“HMK has given me the opportunity to take a side step in my career and get back to what it was that I originally set out to do – electrical engineering.

“I go to college one day a week and it’s proving a real benefit for both myself and the company as I’m able to apply that academic knowledge in the work place – the two go hand in hand.

“The best thing about the job is that every day I’m learning something new, and I’d really recommend engineering as a career to other young people. It offers a stable career path and it provides lots of opportunities and skills that you can use all over the world.”

HMK is committed to investing in our workforce to enable them to continue to provide an unrivalled level of expertise to customers.

Mr Kitchin added: “Here at HMK, the skills and expertise of our workforce is one of our greatest assets, enabling us to provide that expert knowledge, alongside market-leading products to our customers.

“Nathan is a great example of the importance of investing in your workforce – he is gaining highly desirable qualifications that will set him up for an excellent career, and in turn we are able to build and develop our own highly-skilled workforce and help plug that skills gap in the engineering sector.”