For the past month, we have been promoting a survey designed to find out to what extent the recruitment crisis within the fire industry extends. The questions asked about the opportunities for young people within the industry and what job roles would be suitable for this age range.

For answering the survey, respondents were given the chance to win a £50 Amazon voucher.  The prize draw was done in the FIA office and the winner was Rachel Venn of BK Fire, who is currently on maternity leave but gave the following comments.

Rachel said: 

“I was very surprised to have won the prize draw; it's actually the first time I've ever won anything!  The voucher will definitely come in handy for all the baby bits we've discovered we need since little one’s arrival.  

“My role within BK Fire is Personal Assistant to the Directors.  I mainly provide administrative support to the Managing Director but will often float around helping the different teams as and when I can.  Between myself and the Managing Director, we deal with recruitment for both the operations team and the office staff, new clients and quotations (we carry out free site surveys and essentially focus on keeping a good flow of work for the engineers).  I've been working at BK Fire for just under 2 years now and we've seen a huge amount of growth since the unfortunate incident at Grenfell.  As a result, we've been hiring both office staff to deal with the extra admin and engineers to carry out the wide variety of works we have. 

 “It is well known that within this industry we have a huge amount of work but nowhere near enough engineers.  Every fire company is crying out for skilled and qualified engineers, meaning that the engineers that are on the market have such a huge choice when it comes to taking on works.  

“At BK Fire we try to offer a complete package when hiring engineers.  We want to provide them with all the tools necessary such as the latest software, company vehicle, uniforms, along with the opportunity to carry out any relevant training and offer a generous salary with progression available.  However, this is something that so many other companies are offering, therefore it's hard to stand out from the crowd.  

 “I think it's incredibly important to attract the younger generation to the fire industry.  The younger generation can offer what some of the older engineers can't.  They are more up to date with the latest regulations, the latest tools and equipment (things like software on the laptops). I think that they are more flexible to adapting to these new changes.”

The results of the survey, if you’re interested, will be discussed in a webinar presented by CEO Ian Moore (details coming soon). A web sign up link will be available shortly, but if you can’t wait and would like to register your interest, please send us an email.

Register your interest via email>>

*Comments have been edited for clarity and length.