Flight path to work

The UK aerospace sector is thriving thanks to the number of large contracts underway in both the civil and military domains.

Projects as diverse as the Watchkeeper UAV and the Airbus A380 are generating employment opportunities for engineers across the board during their planning and development, while sustained demand from foreign orders is also keeping the sector buoyant.

As usual, the employers' main difficulty appears to be in finding people with the requisite skills for the job.

(ARM) a Hampshire recruitment and training consultant, sources staff for companies specialising in avionics that operate across the sector.

'The market is very buoyant at the moment,' said Sultan Mahmud, senior consultant of ARM's technology and science division. 'The prime contract companies are therefore employing the service of smaller companies to undertake manufacturing and design services.'

Luckily for those working in aerospace the long-term prospects for such staff look good with many major projects still at an early stage in their lifecycle, meaning there will be plenty of work on these over the next seven to 10 years at least.