This oil and gas engineering firm is actually creating graduate jobs - despite the industry downturn

Universal Engineering, which designs and manufactures complex subsea equipment, recently opened a large new facility in South Wales and announced it would create 200 new jobs, up to 10 per cent of which will be for graduate engineers.

The company, which also produces technology for the defence and aerospace sectors, has seen international demand for its oil and gas products rising, even as a recent dramatic fall in oil prices means many companies in the UK are cutting back on investment and graduate hiring.

‘We plan to create 200 jobs over 24 months, and maybe 15 to 20 out of that will be for graduate engineers,’ Universal’s managing director, Mark Cooper, told The Student Engineer .

Universal engineers a wide variety of components for different industries including wiring systems for helicopters and chassis for military ground vehicles such as Supercat Jackal. But its biggest focus is on subsea gas well control systems that enable drilling to take place in the harshest of conditions.