Align JV expects to recruit 1,200 vacancies, with over 100 opportunities for apprentices. They plan to target their recruitment and investment in upskilling local people who are currently unemployed, with a particular focus on women, under 25s and those with disabilities.
Daniel Altier, Align Project Director said: ‘At Align we are committed to leaving a skills and employment legacy to the local communities alongside our works, and to this end we are working closely with local schools, universities and organisations to ensure local people are able to access opportunities for employment, apprenticeships and work experience.’
BBVS will employ a workforce of approximately 1,400 to support the construction of Old Oak Common Station. As well as providing over 250 apprenticeship positions, the joint venture is committed to attracting local candidates, of all ages and backgrounds.
Nigel Russell, Project Director for Balfour Beatty VINCI SYSTRA said: ‘HS2 is critical to the economic resilience of the UK and essential in driving the skills agenda forward; providing a variety of employment opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, including a number of graduate and apprenticeship positions. As works begin to ramp up at Old Oak Common, we are now turning our attention to attracting, training and retaining the best talent, offering the opportunity to work on the largest new station built in the UK in over 100 years and play a key role in delivering Britain’s first low carbon, high speed railway.’
Mace Dragados JV, who this month moved onto the construction site adjacent to Euston station, forecasts that it will need 3,000 workers to help deliver the capital’s new central high speed station.
Mace Dragados Project Director, Martyn Woodhouse, said: ‘The construction of HS2’s Euston Station is an amazing opportunity to get into the heart of the local community and provide not just jobs but lasting careers. People sometimes focus on the construction jobs but there’s so many more careers available on a big project like this and we want everyone to get involved.’
David Lowery, Director of EKFB JV said:
‘It’s our mission at EKFB to use the platform of the HS2 project to lead the transformation of our industry, influence future generations, support the UK economy and leave a legacy that improves people’s lives. The creation of around 4,000 jobs provides an unprecedented opportunity to do this. The focus of our employment legacy will be apprenticeships, worklessness and supporting people in education. We will also provide training and work experience programmes that can lead to employment opportunities for younger and other unemployed individuals, as well as working to attract underrepresented groups.’
An estimated 400,000 supply chain contract opportunities for UK businesses will be created during Phase One of HS2, supporting thousands of jobs on site and many more around the country. It is estimated that around 95% of those contract opportunities will be won by UK based businesses and around two thirds of those will be small and medium sized businesses. HS2 will also significantly improve connectivity in the North and Midlands and will also integrate the existing network serving stations into Scotland, creating hundreds of thousands of extra jobs and an estimated 90,000 homes around HS2 stations.