Rail Industry InsightsThe Australian Rail Industry helps by generating $29.8 billion to the economy each year through major projects and asset management activities, which contributes to an additional 165,000 jobs each year. Over the next 15 years, Australia has pledged $155 billion of investment covering incentives such as reduction of emissions, improvements of safety on the networks, such as removal of level crossings and upgrades to signalling systems. With this much activity within the sector, the focus will be on rewarding those in the industry and attracting new talent due to the Railway Industry having the oldest workforce within the Infrastructure Industry as a whole. So how is the industry working to attract this new talent? A focus will be on skilled migrant workers from overseas, but a lot of the focus has been put into the development of the current workforce and looking at Australia at a national level to benchmark standards from state to state. Reducing the pay gap between male and female employees is still top of mind, as male employees sit at an additional 5% more than female employees across the industry. It’s been great to see that at least 70% of Rail businesses are now participating in hiring graduates and creating a program for their development. I feel is an excellent step to encourage new talent into the field! New Staff MembersWith so many projects within the Rail sector we at Titan are finding demand for our services and in turn have had the pleasure of introducing 3 new members to the team: Jani Els, Jace Daniel and Mikhaila Vanek.Jani Els – Environmental / Geotechnical / Station services Jani’s recruitment experience spans from her time in South Africa, where she supported a wide range of businesses from SMEs to large corporate entities with their staffing requirements. She was tasked with placing top skilled engineers within the Building and Construction sector and the Renewable Energy sector focusing on Solar, Wind and Energy Storage disciplines. Jani brings her wealth of expertise to Titan Recruitment, where she now sources technical professionals within our Infrastructure & Buildings team. Jani’s passion for recruitment stems from supporting the growth and development of her candidates and clients and completing the full recruitment cycle. In her spare time, you’ll find Jani exploring the outdoors whilst hiking, or cooking up a storm in the kitchen.Jace Daniel – Support construction professionals and designers/drafting Jace’s experience from working as a labouring hand to hydraulics in mining machinery and in retail has given Jace a range of transferrable skills that he brings to recruitment. Whilst new to the recruitment industry, he aims to take advantage of the support on offer to craft his own formula for recruitment. He now provides support to construction professionals and designers/drafters. Jace understands from the beginning that everyone is different and needs to be approached in a custom way, whilst being considerate of their needs and having the right information upfront. Jace comes from a strong musical background, where in his spare time he is often doing promotional work for the music industry, often playing gigs, and does session work with other musicians.Mikhaila Vanek – Resourcing professionals within Track and Signalling Mikhaila brings her 15+ years in sales and customer service to Titan Recruitment as a Resourcer in our Rail division. With the experience of hitting targets and strong attention to detail, Mikhaila has the determination needed to accomplish her core goal: sourcing the right candidates for the right roles. Mikhaila is known to take the time to really listen to what a customer/candidate wants so that she can better meet their needs and requirements. She’s focused on empowering herself with as much knowledge as possible within the Rail space to support her team members to the best of her ability. In her spare time, you’ll often find Mikhaila travelling, hiking and camping with her family.Geotechnical UpdateWe are excited to share that we have partnered with leading environmental consultancies in the sector, assisting them on retained searches. We are perfectly positioned to prioritise companies in this regard that partner with Titan Recruitment which ultimately allows us to deliver quality over quantity ensuring the deadlines of parties involved are met. We had success in the environmental impact assessments, contaminated land, and Heritage placements. The upturn in these projects is due to plenty of awarded projects in the environmental industry and early stages of the projects. The answer is in the soil!According to the Geotechnical Services Global Market Report 2022, the projected cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) is 9.6%. The market for geotechnical services worldwide is projected to increase from $1.92 billion in 2021 to $2.10 billion in 2022. The COVID-19 impact, which had earlier resulted in restrictive containment measures including social withdrawal, remote working, and the cessation of commercial activities that resulted in operational issues, is largely to blame for the rise as businesses resume operations and adjust to the new normal. At a CAGR of 6.4%, the market is anticipated to reach $2.70 billion in 2026. Some of the major players (including, but not limited to) in the geotechnical markets are AECOM, Jacobs Engineering Group, AMEC Engineering, Arup Group, Bechtel Group, CH2M HILL, Furgo, Gradline Limited, Geoquip Marine Group, Stantec, Tera Tech, Turner Construction and WSP Group.Structerre Consulting: All geotechnical-related work for a new hotel building located on Hay Street has been awarded to Structerre Consulting. The project will include twenty-two stories above ground and three underground. Bunbury Outer Ring Road: Due to the nature of this project, it naturally required numerous approvals from both the state and federal regulators to evaluate the environmental impact. Aurecon: With the completion of the Joy Baluch AM Bridge Duplication Project being projected for the end of 2022 (weather permitting), significant environmental planning and geotechnical engineering works had to be implemented. The Australian labour market welcomes the “Job Summit” today.According to ABC News, the federal government's two-day Jobs and Skills Summit will begin in the nation's capital this morning, when the doors to the great hall of Parliament House will be thrown open to 143 delegates.Anthony Albanese spoke extensively on his desire to bring together unions, large corporations, and industry groups to brainstorm solutions to the country's workforce and economic difficulties during the election campaign.The combination of skill shortages, slow wage growth, and skyrocketing inflation was creating problems for workers, companies, and governments alike. In September 2022, Mr Albanese, the current prime minister will now get the opportunity to host this much-needed event. Could there be a change in the levels of skilled immigration? Would there be alignment on how wages could be lifted going forward? 482 Visa & Project Update482 Visa Update:We are proud to be partnering with 6 Rail businesses and Consultancies over the past 3 months to offer much-needed additional skilled resources from overseas. We’re monitoring the processing times for the visas and this is currently sitting between 2 to 5 weeks. For more information on this offering, please click here to view our website.Project Updates:Western Australia’s Forrest Field Airport link will be operational from 9th October Awaiting shortlisting components of the HCS project in WA and NSW 100 new accessible trams in Victoria has been awarded to Alstom Stanmore Station upgrade in Sydney has been awarded to Haslin Construction Hitachi has begun major works to install new technology in the NGR fleet Martinus has been awarded the interstate terminal at MoorebankTitan Events SummaryOn behalf of Titan Recruitment, we were honoured to hold our first Women in Industry” breakfast networking event this month. It was an absolute pleasure to see so many Infrastructure professionals together in one room celebrating and networking with each other. Key takeaways from the event include:Female Workforce: Women make up just 24% of the Engineering Industry and the highest participation of the female workforce comes from the Rail & Roads sector, which has a 27% of women. The lowest would be within Mining, which is made up of 13.4% female professionals and 15% of females make up the Construction Industry. Females in Management: We have 22% of our management roles filled by women and last year 30% of Infrastructure professionals hired were female with 32% of all promotions being from the female workforce. This is a massive improvement compared to the Mining Industry, which has 0.5% of its workforce in Management roles, however this is still far away from the numbers we want to see.Females Studying Engineering: Did you know only 18,000 students study Engineering each year and only 3240 of these students are female? Engineers Australia completed a survey back in June and the results showed that only 7% of women studying a degree considered Engineering as an option and 51% were not even aware that Engineering was an option for them to study. Federal Budget: Hopefully the $2.1 billion investment within the Federal Budget will increase the number of women in the profession. Initiatives such as the reduction of the gender pay gap, and providing support for families and women returning to work are top priorities. Although, it’s good to see that funding is invested in the recruitment and retention of women where over 80% of businesses are involved in this. Such activities would be funded by scholarships, female student local construction programs and parental pay from day 1. I was also extremely lucky to attend this year’s Brisbane ARA Industry networking dinner back in June with Dan, our I&B Manager in our East Coast division.The event featured key guest speaker Neil Scales OBE, Director General, Department of Transport and Main Roads. It was fantastic to hear firsthand the success and challenges that the state of Queensland has been facing within the Rail Industry. Key takeaways from the event include: $7 billion investment over four years in the transport and roads investment program (QTRIP) Smart ticketing solutions such as tapping on and off with a bank card Queensland will upgrade 12 stations over 6 years 65 new six-car passenger trains will be introduced to the network 65 Rail crossings are under review for removalTMR is undertaking planning activities to grow capacity ahead of the 2032 Olympic games For more information regarding upcoming Titan events or Rail and Infrastructure & Buildings market insights please call Lianne Adlington on 08 6467 0603 or email requesting a callback.
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