Building a workforce for Pettit Singleton Associates

Preston-based Pettit Singleton Associates, a building services design consultancy, has solved its struggle to find good engineers by training those looking for career progression from other trades, such as former electricians.

Managing director Jimmy Dobson spoke to the Lancashire and Cumbria Institute of Technology about current and future needs and how education can help the sector. 

The business works with Preston College, one of our academic partners. 

Soft skills are crucial to small businesses: “It’s the soft skills and the engineers with commercial awareness that are often hard to find. 

“Being a small business, we don’t have commercial staff to make the business run, so we rely on engineers to get the word out, do the sales bit, ask the right questions and go networking. 

“We don’t just need the technical knowledge, we need soft skills too.”  

Tech will be transformative: “AI is the big one, it’s going to change the face of how an organisation like ours does business. 

“For that to happen, we need to understand how to use it, how it can enhance our business and how it will be regulated.”

Jimmy Dobson, managing director of building services design consultancy Pettit Singleton Associates, in Preston 

Financial support is a big consideration: “The cost of finding and training staff is a big outlay, sometimes for high risk as there can be high turnover of staff after trainees have completed their training. With all the other costs that small businesses are being squeezed on, it’s another thing to think about.”

Education needs to start earlier: “We find that most people don’t know what building services is, never mind young people.  Non-academic students often aren’t shown the vocational options available to them and that needs to start in schools. More needs to be done to show young people in schools and colleges what the options are and get them work ready.”