1 June 2010

Costain is striking up a closer relationship with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), as part of its strategy to develop its Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) capabilities.

The move is driven by the increasing importance of M&E in providing solutions to Costain's customers. This is being seen in all sectors as asset and infrastructure owners strive to get more for less - be it a road using variable speed signs, water and waste infrastructure adapting to new sustainability legislation, a school meeting environmental requirements or better solutions in the power and energy sectors.

Matt Crabtree, Sector Director for Water explains: "In water it stems from our success in winning a series of contracts with water utilities for the fifth of the sector's Asset Management Programmes (AMP 5). The new AMP has an increased reliance on M&E within the business."

"Increasingly, our workload in the water sector has a strong mechanical bias to it. As we go through the AMP process we're finding a lot of the projects are smaller and more capital maintenance-related and a lot of that maintenance tends to be M&E related".

"Historically we've been very much focused on civil engineering and are now looking to strengthen our training and relationship with the IMechE. We have accredited training schemes that have been validated by the Institution and for the first time have mentors for all our Mech Eng graduates."

The strengthened relationship will include Costain taking a place on the Institution's employer panel. "A lot of its current members are manufacturers and it is keen to get a representation from infrastructure providers on the panel," explains Crabtree.

The Panel is being developed to create more employer engagement with IMechE and to provide a business-focused contribution to the Institution's strategy, policy and activities by considering key issues. Costain now has the opportunity to contribute to that debate.

In the near future Costain will be holding an IMechE membership day for graduate engineers with a view to making them aware of the benefits of joining the Institution, striving for chartered status and thus improving the depth of skills within the Group, he adds.

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