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Shadow Scotland Secretary, Ann McKechin, has highlighted the importance of skilled job creation while talking with ACE member engineers in Scotland.
The MP for Glasgow North met with the Association for Consultancy and Engineering and with engineering firm W.A. Fairhurst & Partners in Glasgow to talk about skilled work and growing the economy.
Ann McKechin said: “With unemployment still unacceptably high, and underemployment even higher, both UK and Scottish Governments need to concentrate on how we can harness growth in sectors such as engineering to create the highly skilled jobs that Scotland badly needs”.
Talks focused on the need to drive growth through skilled work in Scotland as the UK faces rising unemployment while companies struggle to recruit staff with the skills that they need.
The engineering industry is vital to Scotland’s ability to invest in infrastructure that will drive growth in the economy. Ms McKechin recognised that this would prove particularly important as moves were made to give Scotland more power to invest.
She said: “These powers will enable more infrastructure projects in Scotland to go ahead and secure the continuance of the wealth of engineering expertise and experience we have in Scotland, and to create highly skilled jobs for the engineers of tomorrow.”
Angus McNab, Partner at WA Fairhurst & partners said “ We were delighted to welcome the Shadow Scotland Secretary to WA Fairhurst’s Glasgow offices and hear her words of support for the consultancy and engineering industry in Scotland. We share the Shadow Scotland Secretary’s concerns over the lack of skilled engineers coming through to drive the economy forward.
“We, together with ACE as a whole, want to work with the Shadow Scotland Secretary and others to find solutions to this problem."
Notes to editors:
Ann McKechin
Ann McKechin is the Member of Parliament for Glasgow North and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland. She was a Scotland Office Minister in the last Labour government and previously served on the Scottish Affairs Committee and as a member of the International Development Committee at the House of Commons.
WA Fairhurst & Partners
WA Fairhurst & Partners (Fairhurst) is one of the largest privately owned Partnerships of Consulting Engineers in the UK. The Firm employs over 450 staff in 16 principal offices along with those of its sister organisation Gary Gabriel Associates. They also operate in other locations through partnering arrangements with various clients, contractors and fellow consultants.
The firm has experienced significant growth over recent years, expanding and building upon its core business of civil and structural engineering to offer a wide range of associated multi-disciplinary services.
The Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE)
ACE, the Association for Consultancy and Engineering, is the business association representing the UK’s providers of professional consultancy services in the built and natural environment.
ACE represents approximately 600 member companies who together account for 90,000 employees in the UK. These businesses contribute more than £8 billion per year to the UK economy, and are instrumental in the development of a wide range of built and natural environment projects.
ACE promotes the critical contribution that professional consultants, working in the built and natural environment, make to the nation's developing infrastructure. ACE listens to its members, understands the issues affecting them and their clients and takes the lead in representing their interests to decision makers and opinion formers in governments, client organisations and the media.
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For press queries please contact Gavin Pearson (gpearson@acenet.co.uk) (020 7222 6557).
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