As active members of Scottish Engineering, our specialist recruiters regularly attend the quarterly regional meetings across Scotland.

Andrew Dow,  Engineering Recruiter  , based in Escape’s Glasgow office, attended one of their most recent events held at Peak Scientific.  

“I always enjoy attending the Scottish Engineering meetings as it is a great opportunity to hear from the front-line their views on the current marketplace and trends. I really enjoying networking with professionals who are involved in Scotland’s Engineering and Manufacturing industry. ”  

Andrew Dow
Engineering Recruitment Consultant
Escape Recruitment

Overview of Key Discussion Points
I attended one of several regional meetings, with my colleagues participating at similar Scottish Engineering events in Forfar, Edinburgh and Fife. Overall the discussions focused on a number of key points including industry optimism, orders, exports and staffing trends.

Unsurprisingly many of the group meetings discussed the fall in oil price during 2015 and how organisations and different sectors within the industry have responded. Broadly speaking it was reported that both aerospace and food and drink organisations are currently doing well, while some construction organisations are “fully recovered” and fabrication is in growth mode.

With many organisations continuing to report on the economic impact on staffing levels, specifically around reduced overtime, hiring freezes and, unfortunately for some companies, redundancies, it was reassuring to hear many employers are investing in the training and development of existing staff and the creation of apprenticeship programmes.

All meetings across the regions continued to highlight skill shortages as a key focus for their business both in the short and long term. Discussions highlighted the need for innovative training programmes, long term investment in development and the importance of building effective relations between education and industry.

The event I attended was held at Peak Scientific, a family owned business, headquartered in Inchinnan. Employing over 350 employees worldwide, they have grown from their roots as a distributor of air compressors in 1992 to become a leading innovator in the design, manufacture and on-going support of high performance gas generators for analytical laboratories,

Following the meeting, we were given a presentation on Peak Scientific and then a guided tour of the site. The presentation was extremely informative and it was great to hear how well Peak is performing, growing year-on-year. We were shown around all parts of the plant including the shop floor, which gave us the opportunity to see their high-tech manufacturing and R&D operations.

This was another informative meeting from Scottish Engineering, supported by an impressive and welcoming host company, Peak Scientific.

The next quarterly report from Scottish Engineering is due in December. Sign up to our Engineering newsletter to receive a copy along with news and updates from our team.

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Our Engineering, Manufacturing & Supply Chain team specialise in recruiting within:

Design and Development | Quality | Process | Maintenance | Management | Projects |
Scientific | Supply Chain, Procurement & Purchasing

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Connect with Andrew – Linkedin | andrew.dow@escaperecruitment.com | 0141 410 9111