These days I speak to a lot of people in the Defence industry and those leaving the forces, and I often hear the same thing: “I’d like to get out of defence”. I’m often left wondering why, but then when I stop and think about it there has been a lot of bad news going around regarding the UK Defence market.
As my colleague Aidan mentioned in his last blog on security clearance, we’ve all heard a great deal about cuts in the Defence industry, redundancies in the armed forces, and seen ships and planes taken out of service early. But when I sit here at my desk today recruiting engineers in that same sector (and desperately trying to find time to write this blog if I’m truly honest), it seems hard to believe that there’s a lack of work or development out there. In fact, £160 billion has been budgeted over the next 10 years for development and spending in Defence.
I’m currently recruiting engineers for Type 45 Destroyer support; Successor submarine design, Astute submarine support; Type 23 frigate refit; MARS tanker systems design and Type 26 Frigate design, not to mention numerous other smaller R+D projects and systems – and that’s just for electronics on Naval platforms!
Some people have said that the level of spending in Defence and the complexity and cost of new platforms and systems isn’t necessary, but they fail to consider the sheer number of opportunities that are being created for UK businesses and UK engineers, and the benefit that is having on the economy.
Our expertise in Defence and particularly the naval domain are now so well regarded that we have companies in Canada and the Middle East approaching us, requesting assistance in the recruitment of British Engineers to fulfil their project needs.
So before you let the news put you off the defence sector, have a second look at what’s going on!
Want to find a new job in the defence sector? Send me your CV to hello@connectusnow.com
