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.

Record PPP starts in 2008 can deliver construction jobs boost

So it's bye bye, Bertie, hello, Brian! It can be a daunting task to understand Minister speak in any country. In Ireland one strategically placed, or misplaced, phrase can have a myriad of meanings. And Bertie was a master of the political soundbyte, in many instances more by accident than intention. Over the years of the many quotes that baffled the nation, one that he will never be let forget was his 2004 comment on conspiracies, “There are kebabs plotting against us”.

But now it is time to close the Bertie speak book and open a new one for Taoiseach in waiting, Brian Cowen, who famously referred to the Department of Health as “Angola” during his tenure there. Known for not holding back, we can expect the Offaly TD to at least entertain during his jousts with opposition leaders.

With recent falling Exchequer income in Ireland Irish ministers have been going to great lengths to carefully phrase the Government’s commitment to the National Development Plan 2007 – 2013 (NDP). Transport Minister Noel Dempsey said if there are to be cutbacks the NDP will the last area to suffer. If this is the case the NDP will be a major source of construction jobs over the next five years, with infrastructure roll out and public contracts being the backbone of the Irish construction industry.

One method that has been very effective in delivering timely public works is the Public Private Partnership Programme (PPP). PPPs are schemes where the private sector takes responsibility for the design, construction, financing and operation of an asset for a set period of time. The private sector is typically not paid until the asset is operational and performing to the contracted standard.

Since 2003 in Ireland a total of 73 PPP projects have been completed, started or are in planning. Projects operating under the PPP mechanic include roads, rail, schools, health, prisons, wastewater management and social housing.

Of the 73 projects in the system, to date 13 have been completed and as of March 08 of the remaining 67 projects, 14 are currently under construction.

If all goes to plan, according to the latest report (March 2008) from the Irish Government’s Central PPP Policy Unit (www.ppp.gov.ie), 2008 will be a record year for PPP schemes getting off the ground. It is planned that a large majority of the remaining projects will go to tender or start on site. The goal is to start construction on a record 28 schemes before the end of the year. A further eight projects are scheduled to go to construction during 2009. Because of the scale of these projects – many of the planned projects having indicative values of €250m plus – it can be expected that demand for construction professionals in Ireland will continue to be strong over the coming 18months.

Of the 28 schemes scheduled to go on site this year, projects of interest include a bundle of three new motorway service areas (Indicative value €50m - €€100) and a bundle of three decentalized Government offices in Portlaise, Mullingar and Carlow (Indicative value €100– €250m).

In the summer the relocation of Mountjoy Prison to Thornton Hall in North Dublin is expected to get under way. The contract was awarded to a consortium that includes Michael McNamara & Co and Barclays Bank. It has an indicative value of €250m plus.

The majority of project starts planned for this year will be carried out under the Department of Environment, Housing and Local Government (DEHLG). Projects ranging from housing to waste and wastewater management are scheduled to begin construction. These include the controversial Dublin Waste to Energy scheme (Indicative value €100 – €250m), scheduled for a summer start. Indicative values on DEHLG projects start at about €10m and rise to €250m for a number of the social housing projects.

So on the basis of the Government’s PPP ambitions for this year and with a further eight projects to go on site next year, several billion euros will be pumped into the Irish economy over the coming years through PPP, with completion dates spreading from 2009 to 2013.

Key opportunities at London Olympics

With major construction contracts for the London Olympics 2012 coming up for grabs in coming 18 months it is no surprise that companies chasing these contracts are leaving no stone unturned in their search for the right candidates to fill construction professional jobs and construction trade jobs.

It is estimated that 12,000 new jobs will be created in the Olympic Park alone, of which 7,000 are in the construction sector.

From an Irish perspective many companies have expressed a clear interest in exporting their expertise. Enterprises Ireland reports that about 70 Irish companies are actively seeking Olympic contracts.

For job seekers looking for construction jobs on the London Olympics site, a quick browse through the UK construction jobs section of constructionjobs.ie will show the ever-growing number of job opportunities that are coming up daily.

One recruitment consultant says an Irish based construction professional job candidate with the right experience can expect to earn the equivalent sterling value in salary package that they have been earning in Ireland over the past few years. That is an increase of about 25 per cent. In addition, if a company finds the right candidate they would most likely be offering additional benefits and assistance with the move to London.

The range of Olympic Games projects that will be on offer over the coming 12 months cover many sectors and levels of work. In fact, it is difficult to identify sectors that will not be affected by the Games.
Key areas of activity include:

• Construction of facilities;
• IT/communications infrastructure;
• Security planning;
• Tourism;
• Media and publicity;
• Cultural programming;
• Sports events and management and;
• Transport and traffic management.

Enterprise Ireland has identified a number of direct and indirect Olympic contract opportunities that it says Irish companies are well placed to deliver
These include:

• Specialist contractors/subcontractors in land remediation, Mechanical & Electrical, Energy/Environment. Companies operating in these areas are likely to benefit from the Olympics and associated work right up until 2011/2012
• Material and product suppliers will see opportunities beginning to arise in earnest at the end of 2008 and these will follow through to late 2011.
• Offsite/Modern Methods of Construction technologies will dominate the building programme for the Olympic Village and all the associated accommodation developments (residential – private and public and hotels). Irish companies with strong, innovative technologies are likely to do well and a few key players are expected to win contracts closer to the time.
• Companies operating in the materials handling/off-highway sectors will see an increase in demand related to the major infrastructure work due to take place in the coming years.

In the area of software and services, opportunities can be grouped into the following:

• Supporting the objective of the key local authorities and related bodies.
• Software for the railway/transport infrastructure industry
• Hotel solutions for hotel/accommodation providers
• Transaction and/or security related software
• Direct tenders from the Olympics Delivery Authority and other bodies
• Working as a sub contractor to the main IT suppliers, including Atos Origin (and potentially GE, Kodak, Lenovo, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa.

Consumer sector opportunities are mainly focused around the running of the Games. Enterprise Ireland identified the following contract opportunities:

• Food and beverages
• Clothing and merchandising
• Manufacture of furniture, textiles and associated soft furnishings for the hospitality sector.

40,000 unique users avail of constructionjobs.ie during February

The number of unique jobseekers to visit constructionjobs.ie has increased by an astonishing 400 per cent in the past 12 months to 40,000 unique jobseekers during the month of February.

These figures show a continuing shift from traditional methods of recruitment to online as an ever-increasing number of jobseekers are becoming active online with the roll out of improved broadband services. International jobseekers using the site are also growing in tandem with their Irish counterparts. Alongside domestic traffic, 30 per cent of the total job seeker activity on constructionjobs.ie is coming from countries outside Ireland.

Other data gives an insight in to how Irish jobseekers have been responding to the recent downturn in housing activity.

The top five locations for job applications from constructionjobs.ie in February were:
1. Dublin
2. UK
3. Cork
4. Mainland Europe
5. Middle East

Paraic Kelly, director of constructionjobs.ie says: “These figures emphasise our position as the number 1 recruitment web site in the Irish market for construction and engineering job information. It also indicates how essential our website has become to jobseekers in construction and engineering sectors. Much of this is attributed to our dedicated marketing campaign and the recent movement of the construction workforce within the Irish market and further afield including hotspots such as the UK, Mainland Europe, Middle East and Australia.
Paraic also comments: ”It is no surprise that Ireland features heavily in applications as contrary to general opinion, there is still a lot of recruitment activity in many areas across the country.

In addition the UK has become an important jobs hotspot for our clients over the past few months and there is a growing interest in jobs across Mainland Europe and in Middle East, countries such as Qatar and UAE.

Our figures show a distinct willingness amongst applicants in Ireland to travel if the right job is on offer.”

Over the coming months constructionjobs.ie expects to see a further significant spike in activity as demand grows for personnel to deliver essential infrastructure projects such as the London Olympics 2012, South Africa World Cup 2010 and Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010.

Constructionjobs.ie has a global clientele involved in construction recruitment, construction, engineering and oil & gas activities across all continents of the world. All the big names in Irish construction use constructionjobs.ie to source experienced construction professionals and trades people, as more and more UK and international companies become attracted to the service.

It is the only Irish based website to provide the latest global construction jobs news and recently launched its blog where its views on the latest industry issues can be exchanged on a daily basis.

Home or Away – What presents the best career opportunities?

The construction colleges’ job fair season got off to a start recently with a number of events taking place in Institutes of Technology across the country. And the constructionjobs.ie team was on hand in Limerick and Dublin to gauge the mood among companies recruiting and construction students.

At Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT), the School of the Built Environment held its annual recruitment fair on 24 January. This year’s was the biggest to date, with 70 companies and 400 students in attendance. In addition to Irish and UK companies looking to bolster their teams constructionjobs.ie noted there was also a strong attendance of companies from Canada, Hong Kong and the Middle East.

Many of the students who visited the constructionjobs.ie stand expressed an interest in opportunities abroad as well as trying to identify employers who could provide them with appropriate experience as well as the possibility of a long-term sustainable career.

On 6 February the constructionjobs.ie team was at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Bolton Street for the Quantity Surveying Recruitment Event, which was held by the School of Real Estate and Construction Economics. Again, the level of interest in job opportunities abroad was high, with the London Olympics 2012 roll-out programme, opportunities in the Middle East and Canada all being major talking points.

London 2012

Unlike the dark days of the 70s and 80s, graduates seeking work abroad can find themselves being offered very lucrative salary packages.

With the London 2012 picking up momentum, one Irish recruiter calculates that with the right experience a construction professional can currently earn 33 per cent more in London than their salaries would be in Dublin. He says: “In London, an experienced construction professional can expect to be paid the same salary figure in sterling that they could earn in Dublin”. Further to this, companies operating in the Middle East, North America and Africa are also competing to attract the cream of Irish graduates.

Opportunities in Ireland

But before you book your flight ticket, Ireland should not be overlooked as there are many big plans on the horizon across the country. None of which appear to be affected by the current recent change in appetite in the Irish property market.

In Limerick, the regeneration of the troubled Moyross, Southill and Ballinacurra Weston areas of the city envisages a new scheme of iconic developments, which will include cluster development of 4,500 new homes with extensive supporting infrastructure.
Just down the road, Clare County Council has just unveiled plans for a new €400 million Shannon Town Centre, which if approved will provide an estimated 1,000 new jobs. In fact many towns across the country are looking to redefine their urban centres and ample opportunities exist to get in on the ground floor.

Two of the most exciting upcoming urban regeneration and development schemes in Ireland are to be found on North Dublin’s Inner City.
The Local Area Plan for the redevelopment of Phibsboro goes to public consultation at the end of February and provisions in the plan could see a luxury hotel or third level college being built on the current site of Mountjoy Prison, as well as a cluster of feature tall buildings dotted across the area’s skyline.

Adjacent to Phibsboro, work has also started on the master plan for the DIT/HSE 75-acre Grangegorman campus, which management of the Grangegorman Development Agency tell constructionjobs.ie will go to planning early next year, start construction before the end of 2009, and be practically completed in 2012. The resulting development will be the largest educational scheme built in Ireland since the foundation of the Irish State and it will probably be the largest urban student campus to be attempted in Europe for many years to come. When completed approximately €1.5billion will have been spent to bring over 25,000 students to the locale. With numerous other schemes planned for Dublin’s North Inner City, as well a Luas extension and the new Metro North line to Dublin Airport, the opportunities to gain valuable graduate experience and build a career would appear endless. Further to this Castlethorn Developments recently submitted a planning application for its €1.2billion Adamstown Central town centre.

So the challenge for construction graduates is not finding work but how to get in on the ground floor of the right development with the right company!

The constructionjobs.ie team will next host a stand at
The Construction Careers Event 2008
The Royal Horticultural Society
Lindley Hall
Westminster
England
27 February

Your opinion
We welcome any comments you may have on the challenges of starting a career or opportunities to gain valuable on site experience.

We would also like to know:
Are colleges and industry doing enough to prepare graduates for the first step into the construction jobs market?