Babcock International has recruited around 300 foreign welders to work on Royal Navy shipbuilding projects in Rosyth due to a shortage of qualified local labour, The Times has reported.
The shortage has been linked to cuts in college training budgets and the Scottish Government’s decision not to fund a new welding centre.
The company, one of Scotland’s largest defence employers, is currently constructing Royal Navy Type 31 frigates at its Rosyth yard in Fife and operates at HMNB Clyde, home to the UK’s Trident nuclear submarines.
According to The Times, a senior UK Government source criticised the skills gap, saying, “We should be training the next generation of apprentices in Scotland but we are seeing a real-terms cut in further education colleges.” The source added that Babcock’s reliance on “300 Filipino welders” reflected a failure to meet defence industry demand locally.
Scottish Enterprise, a government-controlled agency, previously refused to back a proposed welding training centre on the Clyde because it would have supported military shipbuilding. The UK Government has since said it will fund the project directly to prevent similar shortfalls from affecting work at BAE Systems’ Type 26 frigate programme in Glasgow.
Defence Minister Luke Pollard also said this week that Westminster was exploring ways to invest directly in Scottish colleges to tackle shortages in skilled trades such as welding and fabrication.
A Babcock spokeswoman said that while most of its roles are filled locally, the firm had been forced to look abroad to meet urgent project timelines. “While most roles are filled locally, the specialist nature and availability of the skills required to support our build programme means we may need short-term international recruitment to meet delivery timelines,” the company said in a statement.
The company is also tipped to secure a £1 billion contract to construct four ships for the Danish Navy, a deal that would further expand its order book. Babcock International Group’s shares rose this week, trading as high as 1,205 pence before closing at 1,187 pence, reflecting renewed investor confidence in its maritime operations.
SNP so desperate for Frigate building to fail they’re actively sabotaging it now… people of Scotland pay attention.
Take the work away from the useless Scots then. Their approach beggars belief….
Wa**ker detected, opinion rejected
But of course you would say this. Jock are you?
He’s not on his own 🏴, but some of us are way more polite. It’s for the Scottish people to see the SNP for what they are, which is self serving, incompetent, untrustworthy and totally useless. Tarring an entire Nation as useless for the decisions made by their Politicians is a bit rich coming from a Country that has produced most of Politicians that have really screwed UK defence.
Sandys, Healey, Knott, Major, (Bill and Ben the Flower Pit men were ours), Cameron, Johnson, Truss, Sunak and now Starmer and that’s after 800 years of practicing democracy. So you lot should really know better !
Anyone in the UK labelling another Nation as useless because of its Ruling Political class is bit rich when you think about it !
I actually think you should apologise 🤔
You’re commenting on a Scottish website
TBF it is called UKDJ, not Scotland DJ, so if we’re UK citizens we all have equal commenting rights.
Blame the SNP politicians not the Scottish workers.
I’m sure there are English and Welsh welders kicking about. Oh, didn’t the SNP refuse to fund a welding college because they didn’t want to fund defence jobs, which ended up being saved by Westminster?.
I’m not sure how familiar you are with Scottish geography, however the welding colleges the SNP didn’t want to fund very recently is on the other side of the country from Rosyth and it takes many years to train a welder so no chance it was providing any welders to Babcock now.
Scotlands industrial base is full primarily due to the vast amount of offshore wind farms being built while similatnioulsy doing North Sea decommissioning. All of those welding jobs pay way way more than working in a shipyard and Fife and the South East of Scotland economy is booming.
It’s no surprise they need to turn to foreign welders.
There is no where else in Britain outside of Cumbria that is going to have 300 welders going spare and everyone in Cumbria is fully employed.
This is the problem with the boom and bust nature of UK government procurement.
The yard at Rosyth will run out of work in four years so why train lots of people up.
Thanks Jim for your sensible and accurate appraisal. There ain’t no spare welders morth of the border and not many south of it either.
Which makes the SNP government’s lack of funding for training intolerable.
Particularly as Jim points out there are plenty of well paid welding jobs in other sectors!
Aye Ready 🏴 Spot on Jim.
“saved by Westminster”? When?
In September, Labour stepped in to support a welding centre being built by RR after the SNP refused to provide funds due to their pacifist policies.
So is the Scottish position simply anti Union or anti military? Because I thought they stated in the past to have their own tiny navy if they had independence, meaning they want a military and not to be a pacifist nation. Therefore this is not on the principle of pacifism but to sabotage Britains navy, therefore Royal Navy, and willing to make Scottish workers expendable to do so.
Salmond suggested they would have three T23 frigates before they were in the falling apart state.
There appears to be some extreme leftists in the SNP and their allies, the Green party, given some of the woke nonsense they have tried to push on Scotland, I would say they are anti-military
The SNP wants independence …..it also wants someone else to pay for it’s defence.
Surely this is nothing out of the ordinary ?
I thought every ship built uses multi national labour 🤔🫡
There was plenty of Polish being spoken in Portsmouth when the carrier sections were being built.
I’ve had dealings with a few Polish, they all have been excellent.
Totally agree. I worked in the the structural steelwork construction industry for nearly 40 years. We desperately needed Polish welders to make up for the lack of UK welders. They have been great for the UK construction industry. Our business had local apprenticeships but couldn’t get enough young people interested so needed to supplement. Paying decent money too. Maybe there’s some opportunist hiring “cheaper Philipinos” but Babcock have dates to meet and all of the QA procedures will be adhered to. Should be UK jobs but do we want the ships or not?
The mistake? Putting all eggs into a Scots basket. This work should have been spread out.
I know a skilled welder, he will not move to Scotland, nor will any of his workmates consider it. Many reasons given, housing, schools etc. Main one? the SNP and their politics.
On the plus side they do have the square sausage in Scotland 🙂
Does he have 300 friends 😂
Not sure if you realise but Babcock won a competition to get to build these frigates against Cammel Laird. It wasn’t handed to them.
Babcock’s bid was significantly better in every metric.
How do you factor that in with your mate the welder getting the job?
Could he have potentially bid to build the Type 31?
Here’s a thought, companies that need skilled workers take on apprentices and train them. It worked beautifully for generations until the modern trend of expecting employees to be born with skills and experience got a grip of recruiter’s.
Training Apprentices is a mixed bag. Many will stay after completion but many will move on. The trick is to have a conveyer belt of both apprentices and work.
Now then, I’m being way too serious this week, things need to revert back to normal.
What do welders and prostitutes have in common?
You usually find them in awkward positions, screaming for more rod and more money.
I told my welder friend that joke… he said it was spot-on!
The trick with this would be to pay for apprenticeships and put a caveat in that they have to stay with the company X amount of years afterwards or else pay back the costs.
My brother in law did an accountancy apprenticeship a few years ago, now going for chartered, and he has to stay for 2 years after or pay it back.
Two years isn’t much for training costs.
Trouble is that these guys move jobs/yards for 50p/hr because of pressure from partners.
We had it all the time and shut our training and everyone nicked our staff.
Outsourcers would rather hire and fire at the end of the contract than train people to do a job, maximum profit for shareholders is their goal.
Noted and added to your file…..
I have known apprentices get made redundant as soon as they have served their time.
Normally an apprenticeship is 4-5 years.
During that time, company fortunes can change, so by the time you are fully trained, there might not be a full time position for you.
The door swings both ways.
Why would you want to spend your working life with a bucket on your head and staring at a bright light?
Because it pays quite well?
Nope
29-43k for a flux welder on their website. Thats crazy for a skilled worker. There must be a bonus attached to that??
Why do you think they can’t attract the best or get the best to stay with those rates?
Oil/gas/wind will pay 30-50% more.
Absolutely, and if you take into consideration they have to move from their main location and have to pay additional costs in food and accommodation plus be away from their families it’s not a great deal.
They probably have a burning passion for welding. It’s a relationship in which you always know sparks will fly.
Sometimes you do the job you can or the job that’s needed not the job you want and even the job you want can be shite sometimes.. I often reflect on why I chose a job that involved wrapping dead children up in white bedsheets and sellotape after you’ve spent 2 hours trying save them and 10 minutes latter having to restraining the furious alcohol driven speed head trying to kill a colleague.. often I though bashing metal may have been the better option…and then a full trauma call would come in and you are in total flow state saving a life and think you have the best job ever..until it’s not again.
If Babcock is relying on 300 “Filipino” workers maybe there’s some opportunity for T31s/AH140 licence builds in the Philippines through word of mouth and a ready trained workers, technology transfers and all that?
Indonesia too, being offered older Chinese naval ships (and new fighter jets), might be more AH140s opportunity for licence builds there too.
Meanwhile back in the UK, glad the central government is taking leadership on this and promoting industry and employment in Scotland despite dividing forces. Read in Naval News that NZ might be heading on the Mogami frigate direction for cooperability with Aus. Will they go again with the AH140, pr even BAE with the T26?
If Babcock is relying on 300 “Filipino” workers maybe there’s some opportunity for T31s/AH140 licence builds in the Philippines through word of mouth and ready trained workers, technology transfers and all that?
Indonesia too, being offered older Chinese naval ships (and new fighter jets), might be more AH140s opportunity for licence builds there too.
Meanwhile back in the UK, glad the central government is taking leadership on this and promoting industry and employment in Scotland despite dividing forces. Read in Naval News that NZ might be heading on the Mogami frigate direction for cooperability with Aus. Will they go again with the AH140, pr even BAE with the T26?
The Philippines is working on a Shoe String budget and I doubt they could afford the T32’s, they also have cosy relationships with S Korea, Indonesia, USA and Japan. The first 2 provide New Build Surface Warships and Amphibious Ships, the latter 2 older 2nd hand ships that still have life in them.
Babcock are actually offering apprenticeships for welders in Bristol, they’re desperate for them. If the first two years wages weren’t so low for me, I’d take them up on it. My father in law is a fully skilled welder working for GKN at Filton, and they’re also crying out for welders. If you know someone about to leave school in the Bristol area, the I would suggest telling them to be knocking on their door.
Sorry, pressed the post button twice..
I don’t particularly see a problem with this. Whilst it’s a shame we don’t have the skills here in the UK at the moment, we all know the reasons why.
They’re going to come here, gets jobs, pay tax, need places to live and buy things in local shops.
Hopefully over the next couple of years we can train hundreds so that we can increase production.
Also, bring some shipbuilding back to Portsmouth….
The Filipinos have been in Rosyth for months, its not even the same Filipinos, they do rotations. Not sure why this is news, its crap that we can’t supply our own of course but there have been all sorts of languages and accents spoken in Rosyth dockyard for years.
Are there really no welders in Scotland with all of the job losses we keep hearing about on the Clyde and in Oil etc; or is it just cheaper and easier to hire from overseas? If the latter, stop it, either way, train more locals.
Too many people are anti defence here at the cost of good industrial jobs.
It’s the same with the high tech at Leonardo in Edinburgh. Local government are against them when we really need more of their sort
Wonder how many foreign welders went home after Brexit? There’s a thought. Wonder how many migrants stuck in hotels wanting to work are decent welders?
This is not a “Scottish” skill shortage but a UK one if in actual fact it is one. There are plenty of welders working in Scotland who are being properly renumerated for tgeir skills across multiple industry sectors and there are plenty of welders who left due to Brexit.
The reason Babcock and BAe are struggling is they wont pay the market rate and importing cheap labour is their answer.