Hoare Lea was crowned Employer of the Year at the CIBSE Young Engineers Awards in October. Hoare Lea was the overall Employer of the Year winners, also taking the title in the large company category, with SI Sealy & Associates winning in the small employer category, and Atelier Ten winning the medium category.
The award recognises organisations of all sizes that demonstrate a strong commitment to nurturing and advancing early-career talent, and highlight the essential role employers play in developing the next generation of engineers, recognising organisations that are investing in early-career professionals and creating opportunities for young engineers to learn, develop and progress.
Hoare Lea impressed the judges with their long-standing investment into developing young engineers. Their ethos that employers have responsibility not just to recruit talent but to help create it, was evident in their STEAM work, which saw the company reach 63 education organisations in the last year, through activities, career events and mentoring.
For employees, there is a structured development journey designed to build technical excellence alongside professional confidence. They are also preparing engineers for tomorrow by investing in future skills, evidenced in their award-winning Data Academy, which equips engineers with practical capability in AI, machine learning analysis and visualisation.
Jonathan Noall, Head of Learning and Organisational Development at Hoare Lea said: ‘Supporting young engineers goes far beyond the initial recruitment and onboarding. It is about creating an environment where people discover engineering, develop into well-rounded confident and competent professionals, learn from mistakes and grow in confidence, build lasting relationships and ultimately inspire those who follow them. By investing in every stage of that journey from early careers to industry leader, we are helping secure the future of engineering both within Hoare Lea and across the wider built environment.’
SI Sealy & Associates, as well as regular careers workshops with their outreach to schools and colleges, put training and development of their own talent at the core of their business, with a structured personal development plan, secondment arrangements with a partner engineering design consultancy, and a policy of promoting from within.
Atelier Ten have a clear track record of investing in nurturing talent, they have created clear pathways into the profession and provided opportunities for career development, with graduate recruitment, structured learning, mentoring and professional development and initiatives designed to broaden participation in engineering.
