THE DOWNTURN in the construction industry has not completely diminished the demand for engineers, the professional members’ body for qualified engineers in Ireland has said.
John Power, director general of Engineers Ireland, said traditionally people had associated engineering purely with construction, but that jobs and career possibilities were fast emerging for engineers across the green sector.
Mr Power told The Irish Timesat Engineers Week, a nationwide series of more than 150 events promoting engineering as a career, that new jobs were being advertised almost daily on the Engineers Ireland website, with between 10-15 new jobs going up each week.
Mr Power was speaking following the release of new research commissioned by Engineers Ireland which shows that three-quarters of Ireland’s top engineers believe a “green economy” will drive Ireland’s economic future.
The survey of more than 400 engineers carried out by Ipsos MRBI found that 32 per cent of engineers saw sustainable energy as the area where engineers could make the biggest contribution.
At an energy workshop yesterday for primary school students as part of Engineers Week, Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan said Ireland had a “natural advantage in terms of wind, wave and tidal power”.
“The challenge now is to develop the technologies to harness these resources,” he added. “This has the dual benefit of boosting our self-sufficiency with regards to energy generation as well as developing cutting-edge technologies that we can export across the globe.”
Mr Power said engineers would play a key role in Ireland’s economic development, adding that investment in green energy would play a significant part in ensuring engineers were instrumental to Ireland’s economic recovery.