Touching Down in Abu Dhabi

This is the most exciting place in the world where any construction professional could be at this point in time




Yas Island



Quantity Surveyor, guest blogger and Carlow native Declan Scully gives his first impressions of Abu Dhabi

Four months ago I was sitting in an office in Ireland worrying about what the future held. With the rate of decline in the Irish construction market, I felt I had little control over whether I would have a job at all in the months ahead. This evening I write this after returning from a day’s work at the Yas Island racetrack in Abu Dhabi, which will host the 2009 Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In April I came across an advert for a job in Abu Dhabi and applied to construction recruitment firm MCR Personnel. Within weeks my future employer, Higgs & Hill – a major international construction management firm –, interviewed me at a Dublin Airport hotel. When I accepted the job, Higgs & Hill and MCR Personnel handled visa, accommodation, flights and everything else for me. I had very little do apart from give my notice.

It’s just over two months now since I arrived in Abu Dhabi, the largest of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and I am working as a QS with Higgs & Hill.

I usually work 8AM to 7PM, five or six days a week – not dissimilar to home. However being part of what is happening over here is incredibly exciting. It really has to be seen to be believed.

In the workplace there is great respect from the employer and between work colleagues. I believe this is one of the reasons why things get done. And, believe me, things get done!

Our site, like many others, works 24/7. The pace is incredible. The Yas Racetrack is a 12-month build. At home I can only imagine that a similar project would take nearly five years to complete.

As for the lifestyle! We work hard! But that is not to say we don’t enjoy ourselves. People make you feel right at home here. This is probably a good thing because 90 per cent of the residents are non-nationals. This great cultural mix adds to the excitement of the place. And, of course, anything I might want at home is also easily available here.

To any anyone who is toying with the idea of working over here, all I can say is give it a go. I don’t think you will be disappointed! Abu Dhabi is the most exciting place in the world where any construction professional could be at this point in time.

International recruiters compete for construction workers in Dublin

Depending on what statistic you read, anywhere between four and 17 per cent of migrants who came to Ireland in search of work after the Accession States joined the EU in May, 2004, have left the country in the past year.

On 13 and 14 June, FAS hosted a ‘European Construction Jobs Fair’ at its offices in D’Olier Street, Dublin. In attendance were employment advisers from Government agencies in the United Kingdom, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Slovakia, Norway and Denmark, each advising construction workers on the numerous employment and career development options available within the construction sector throughout Europe.

There were also two recruitment agencies in attendance offering construction jobs in the UK, construction jobs in Netherlands and construction jobs in Poland to name a few places.

Competition to attract construction recruits was great with a number of stands offering flights and accommodation to the right job candidate.

A representative on the Polish stand told constructionjobs.ie that they expect to see a marked increase in construction activity in Poland next year when work begins on stadia for the European Championships 2012. This they say will kick start a construction boom in the country, which will result in huge investment in the development of road and rail infrastructure, hotel construction and residential development.

An advisor from the Scottish jobs agency said there were considerable construction job opportunities in residential development in Aberdeen – a vital support to the North Sea oil industry. She said there were also huge construction job opportunities in Edinburgh, particularly with the ongoing development of the new Edinburgh tramway system on track (Excuse the pun).

The FAS offices in which the event was held were packed to capacity with majority of stands targeting tradesmen and skilled labour. But there was also big demand for engineers. I will be publishing updates on opportunities in individual countries over the coming weeks.

Construction job opportunities in Dubai

They use ice cubes to work the concrete

Guest blogger and architectural photographer Gerry O Leary writes about the first time he set foot in Dubai

It is exactly one year now since I first set foot in Dubai, I had heard all the talk and reasons as to why I should visit and how much work I would get there etc. So I just went. Eight hours of Aer Lingus (who no longer fly to Dubai) later, I arrived in Dubai International Airport and was struck by its enormous size. Protected from the elements by the ever-running air conditioning, it really hit me that I was in Dubai when I was greeted by the wall of ‘oven-like’ searing heat on exiting the airport. The taxi driver assured me that 36 (at this ungodly hour of 3am) was not really hot saying, “it reaches 50 in July & August”

Next morning as I walked Sheikh Zayed Road (the Champs Élysées of Dubai) and so impressed was I that my chin was on the pavement at the sheer size and design of the numerous towers that delineated the street, one more impressive than the next. I took the day to look around the city with the assistance of a local resident. The place is rather disjointed with a number of what I called sub-cities such as The Marina, Burj Dubai, Bur Dubai (Oldtown) Jumeirah and Deira to name but some.

I had heard that one quarter of the world’s construction tower cranes were in Dubai; I had my doubts about this. But to my amazement, in every direction I turned the skyline was spiked with cranes too numerous to count. The entire city is one huge construction site. It just had to be seen to be believed. It is just phenomenal!

They work round the clock too, usually pouring concrete at night, to avoid concrete setting in the mixers during the hot daylight hours. One engineer in Dubai told me they use ice cubes of various size in the mix instead of water to prolong the workable time of the concrete – an ingenious idea.

I went to Dubai not just to have a look and be amazed but also to seek international assignments photographing beautiful architecture. As with any business venture I did my market research and came up with a target audience. I was aiming high and looked for the top tier of architects. I had the right product to sell and once I got passed the bureaucracy of the first few levels of marketers and assistants I got quality assignments.

Now I travel to Dubai for approximately one week per month (except for July and August) and photograph their most iconic buildings. It is dream territory for me, great weather, fabulous buildings and the money is not bad either!

To view Gerry's unique architectural images visit his website http://www.gerryoleary.com/

Visit our Middle East construction jobs page to find the latest construction jobs and engineering jobs in Dubai.

Government moves to counter UK construction skills gap

The UK Government is planning a major move in conjunction with the UK construction industry and engineering sector to tackle the country's widening construction skills gap.

According to The Guardian newspaper, British Innovation Minister John Denham is to launch a fund to tackle serious skills shortages in a number of industries including the UK construction sector.

He will hold talks with employers in June to discuss how government and industry can prevent major skills gaps in finance, construction, engineering, IT and science up to 2014. He says Britain needs to train nearly two million workers in these industries to remain competitiveness on a global scale.

Denham plans to earmark specific training funds for these industries and has also allocated £200m in capital spending over the next three years to support specialist facilities for training.
UK Government research indicates that, between 2004 and 2014, an estimated 650,000 construction workers , 300,000 science and engineering workers and 500,000 IT workers will be required.

Denham said there would be a wave of demand for skilled construction workers and engineers to build nuclear power stations and green power generators. Construction workers and engineers are also essential for the construction of homes and to deliver big UK infrastructure projects such as Crossrail, and for new colleges and schools.

Energy industry leaders have warned the government that a lack of skilled engineers and project managers could jeopardise the building of a new generation of nuclear power stations since many workers were trained as the previous ones were built and are coming up to retirement.

Construction jobs opportunities in the Gulf States

View of Dubai from the Burj Tower – The world's tallest building

On Wednesday, 30 April constructionjobs.ie was in attendance at the Construction Opportunities in the Gulf States seminar, hosted in Dublin by Enterprise Ireland.

The one-day seminar briefed Enterprise Ireland clients on construction product and services opportunities in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

Speakers at the event included Jim Mongey, Enterprise Ireland Regional Manager Middle East & North Africa; Sheikh Nasser Mohamad H Almutawa Alotaibi, chairman of Samama Group of Companies (5th largest company in Saudi and Gulf Cooperation Council in terms of manpower) and Tom Barry, General Manager of Arabtec Construction (UAE's leading construction firm). There was also a presentation by the Saudi Binladen Group.

The seminar attracted representatives from a number of leading Irish contracting and construction materials firms.

At present the combined Gulf States have an estimated spend of $2 trillion on construction activities, with every new project out-scaling previous ones in ambition. The conference was told this level of activity was set to continue until at least 2030. From a jobs perspective, there is great interest in recruiting experienced construction professionals such as contracts and project managers, all engineers, architects and quantity surveyors to the region. But the list of required professions grows month on month. A quick browse through constructionjobs.ie Middle Eastern job opportunities will give an idea of the scope of construction professional job opportunities that exist.

Speakers at the conference encouraged Irish companies to visit the region to get a feel for the types of projects that are underway.

Constructionjobs.ie advises that construction professionals looking for construction job opportunities in the region should be researching European companies who have developed a presence in the Gulf region. A good place to start this research would be on constructionjobs.ie Middle East construction jobs page. From here you will be able to identify constructionjobs.ie contracting clients and construction jobs.ie recruitment agency clients that are already operating in the Gulf States.

For any contractor or materials supplier that wants to develop opportunities, visiting the market, accessing projects and building local credibility and contacts will be crucial to success as will building relationships and trust with local companies. Enterprise Ireland advises that above all, having a local presence on the ground will be essential to drive forward with potential projects in the future.

From an opportunities perspective the seminar presented a list of key services that could be filled by Irish companies. The list, as you see, is endless. But we have attempted to simplify it.

Key construction jobs opportunities in the Gulf States identified:

• Contracting
• Building supplies
• Consulting
• Project management
• Traded services
• Sustainability and Environment
• Energy conservation
• Water use and reuse - Desalination
• Health and Safety

For construction professionals considering a move to the Gulf region constructionjobs.ie advises one of the key criteria to being successful in applying for positions is to "Assess the scope of your own expertise and identify whether or not this expertise is available in the local market you are targeting." If not, great opportunities and premium salary packages may be on offer for the right job candidate.

Job opportunities in Education roll-out

One building sub sector that struggled to keep up during the property boom of the past few years was the Education. Listening to Ministerial announcements you might have believed that year on year there was a massive roll out of new schools. But disproportionate fund allocation, poorly planned infrastructure in Rapid Population Growth areas and inflated land prices combined to hinder those charged with delivering schools in achieving their goals.
With the slowdown in Irish residential output this year and probably next year, the Department of Education and Science (DES) Planning and Building Unit has been afforded the opportunity to catch up.

In 2008 €600m of Exchequer funding will be spent on school development, with 200 projects ranging from new school buildings to roof repairs planned for completion before year's end. Another 350 projects are scheduled to start between now and early next year. The works will be carried out primarily in the Eastern Region of Ireland (Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and Louth) in areas of Rapid Population Growth, where it will take at least two to three years to meet the school requirements for the current level of new housing stock. Parts of Cork, Galway and Limerick have also been highlighted as areas that will experience large-scale Education infrastructure development in the next 18 months.

In 2005 the Irish Government announced a plan to provide 23 new post-primary schools and four primary schools as bundle projects through Public Private Partnership from 2006 to 2009. Plans are now at an advanced stage on three of these bundles. The first – a bundle of four schools (Two in Laois, two in Offaly) – will be built by the Macquarie Partnership for Ireland (MPFI), a consortium that includes Pierse Contracting. Work is expected to start on these in early summer. Another scheme is scheduled to begin later this year with the other penciled in for early 2009. Further projects are planned for 2009.

From a construction jobs perspective, this is all good news. School building presents an opportunity for those looking to migrate from residential development to a sector that requires similar skills.

The DES Planning and Building Unit says that the slowdown in housing has had the effect of making tenders and land prices more cost effective. In this scenario, once funding can be maintained, Education roll out should provide sustainable construction job opportunities for a wide variety of construction trades people and construction professionals in the coming years.

Public Contracts Opportunity

In a radio report last week one Irish union representative suggested the Government should bring forward more public contracts in the National Development Plan (NDP) in an effort to replace job losses in the housing sector, even if this means borrowing heavily.
However with the Irish civil engineering sector performing so well in recent times, the Government should be looking at the feasibility of bringing forward more NDP projects to take full advantage of the unprecedented output abilities of Irish civil engineers at this point in time.

Because of the huge housing output of the past few years, infrastructure such as schools, healthcare and water treatment are now playing catch up. While there will be many construction job opportunities in these areas in the coming years a golden opportunity is being lost at the moment because projects aren't coming through the system quickly enough.

The Irish Government stumbled earlier this year when it announced that there would be delays in getting a number of high profile Transport 21 Plan projects to site. Coincidently, there is a Transport 21 billboard campaign running at the moment, which highlights the Irish Government's €34bn investment in road and rail infrastructure as part of the €184bn budgeted National Development Plan 2007 - 2013.

While there is no shortage of activity in the civils sector, when you consider the productivity of those in civils jobs over the past two years you would have to say never before have Irish civil engineering firms been better placed to handle more work. They regularly deliver major roads projects below budget and ahead of schedule and many in the sector believe there is capacity for even greater output.

Last year, former CECA (Civil Engineering Contractors Association) president John Craddock said that while he was delighted with the success of the sector to date, he believed that Irish civil engineering contractors and their construction teams were capable of handling even more projects. It is just a matter of those projects coming on line.

So maybe it is time to revisit the NDP roll out schedule before the opportunity is lost.