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Over 3,500 engineers, students and apprentices have already signed up to a flagship industry scheme designed to match engineering talent with new job opportunities, it has been announced recently.

The national web-based Talent Retention Solution (TRS) brings together specialists whose jobs may be at risk or people who want to work in engineering - with companies that are looking to recruit skilled staff to satisfy growth in their companies.

Launched in 2011, TRS, was created by business for business. The scheme has now grown to include over 600 companies of all sizes supporting a number of sectors including aerospace, electronics, energy, construction and automotive. These include not only some of the UK’s largest companies - such as Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, BAE Systems and Siemens – but a range of midsized and smaller sized firms.

This number of companies on TRS is set to nearly double with the addition of the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) and British Glass as the latest sponsors of the scheme. Their participation in the scheme will immediately allow their member companies automatic access to TRS.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

What I like most about the TRS is how simple it is. It’s like an ‘eBay’ for engineers that matches vacancies with talent.

With successful manufacturers constantly telling me they struggle to recruit engineers, I hope the popularity of the TRS will encourage even more people to sign up – especially small businesses who can use it for free.

Allan Cook, Chair of the Skills and Jobs Retention Group, which led the development of the TRS, and Chairman of Atkins, Selex ES and Finmeccanica UK, said:

I am delighted with the service TRS is providing and how employers in our sector plan to expand it further. The involvement of our latest sponsors - ECITB and British Glass - is a further boost for TRS, given their tremendous reach with companies across a wide range of industries including nuclear, oil & gas, construction and glass manufacturing. This will enhance the scheme, adding to the companies that have supported TRS since its launch in 2011.

Many more companies and individuals will benefit from the exceptional access to talent that TRS offers. SMEs, students, apprentices and experienced engineers can all register at no cost – it’s a simple and effective way to see the career opportunities available in our most important and exciting industry. This is a win-win situation for employers, potential employees and the whole industry.

Companies seeking to recruit engineering talent or people interested in working in engineering and who want to find out more are encouraged to visit the TRS website.

Notes to editors:

1. The TRS was launched in July 2011. It is fully self-financing and managed by the private sector. It was created by business for business as a redeployment and retention tool but was expanded by business to allow students and apprentices to register, capturing their interest in working in the advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors. More than 600 UK companies have registered to use the TRS. The system is devoted entirely to the needs of the engineering sectors.

2. Allan Cook, Chairman of WS Atkins, is also Chairman of the Skills and Jobs Retention Group. This Group helped to set up the TRS. The TRS is free for individuals and SMEs to access and to use. It is a not-for-profit system, supported by companies, trade associations, and engineering sector professional bodies.

3. The government’s economic policy objective is to achieve ‘strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries’. It set four ambitions in the ‘Plan for Growth’ (PDF 1.7MB), published at Budget 2011:

• to create the most competitive tax system in the G20
• to make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business
• to encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy
• to create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe.

Work is underway across government to achieve these ambitions, including progress on more than 250 measures as part of the Growth Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new impetus to this work by providing businesses, investors and the public with more clarity about the long-term direction in which the government wants the economy to travel.