HS2 Ltd have announced that it will create 500 new jobs across the rail project during the next quarter, with over 300 of them being based in Birmingham. As part of their 3-month recruitment drive, candidates can apply to directly work for HS2.
The roles range from engineering and commercial vacancies to project management and land, property and procurement roles. In what has been a challenging time for almost every sector, the announcement of these new vacancies will come as a welcome boost for construction workers across the country, and provides an opportunity for many to play a vital role in delivering HS2 and improving connectivity across the country. This latest round of vacancies will push the total number of jobs supported by the project to over 10,000 once the latest 500 recruits are on board.
This latest announcement comes just a few months after work on the new high speed rail lines was given the go-ahead by the government. Back in April, the government confirmed that contractors could “start work immediately” on phase one of the £106bn project.
HS2 minister Andrew Stephenson said: “These jobs are a welcome boost for workers across the country at this challenging time, providing the opportunity to play a crucial part in delivering HS2, an integral part of improving connectivity and levelling up our country.
We continue to work with the transport and construction industry to accelerate projects, where safely possible, to kickstart our economy, provide more employment opportunities and drive our recovery as we build out of COVID-19.”
HS2 Ltd have also confirmed plans to more than double the number of graduates it will recruit this year to help combat the impact of the Coronavirus crisis on “young people’s employment prospects”.
The high speed rail project received more than 1,000 applications to its 2020 graduate programme and planned to hire nine graduates.
HS2’s talent manager Karen Davis said: “The increase in applications we received this year was overwhelming and with the impact of COVID-19 widely reported to be adversely affecting young people’s employment prospects, we really wanted to do more.
HS2 is committed to providing the jobs and helping develop the skills to show off the very best of British engineering. We’ll now welcome 21 graduates and 22 apprentices into HS2 Ltd in September, which is in addition to the opportunities also available with our joint venture partners and across the supply chain.”
It has been reported that HS2 anticipate, at peak construction, it will support more than 30,000 jobs with at least 2,000 apprenticeship opportunities throughout the project.