Industry faces engineer shortage.

• Author: HUNREAULT, GREG
• Position: Canadian Council of Professional Engineers report - Brief Article

At a time when various professions are facing dire recruitment challenges nationally, consulting engineering firms are looking at methods to dam the increasing flow of skilled professional engineers to more lucrative careers.

Don Ingram is president of the Consulting Engineers Ontario (CEO), an advocacy group for the roughly 275 member consulting and 25 affiliate firms, from sole practitioners to the largest firms in all markets. He says one of the biggest challenges the industry faces is "recruiting sufficient, experienced talent."

While the basic numbers of graduates in engineering has not changed. nationally the past decade, the mix certainly has. Figures released by the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers in December 2000 indicate that enrolment in civil engineering has decreased by roughly 30 per cent from 1994 to 1999 levels.

Between 1995 and 1999; the number of civil engineering degrees awarded nationally decreased by 28 per cent. In 1999 the number of civil engineering degrees was 18 per cent less than in 1998.

Meanwhile, the report states that from 1995-96 to 1999-2000 computer engineering experienced a growth of 89 percent in enrolment.

Competition for qualified engineers in a number of sectors has attracted skilled engineers, and Ingram says, the recession of the early 90s contributed to some leaving the profession for other opportunities. At the provincial level, the CEO is trying to address the shortage issue on a number of fronts. The organization is working to create civil consulting programs, working with allied associations such as construction, and is meeting with the provincial government.

National Engineering Week, held in March, is a Canada-wide effort to inform the public and students in particular about career opportunities and the role of engineering in society.

While efforts continue nationally and provincially, Dave Knutson, president of Cook Engineering in Thunder Bay, has a narrower focus on recruitment, challenges. He says steady growth in business opportunities in his firm has driven his search for intermediate to senior mechanical engineers with heavy industry experience for the past year. A corporate restructuring has also created some vacancies when some engineers assumed management positions.

Of Cook Engineering's staff, roughly 20 are professional engineers and five are engineers-in-training.

Knutson says the current shortage can be attributed in part to lean times in the early 90s when some...