SEVERAL major contractors back initiative established by CICES president Alison Watson MBE.
Employers in the built environment, from SMEs to large organisations including Balfour Beatty and Strabag, have committed to taking on at least one geospatial apprentice in the September 2025 intake, thanks to a drive by the newly formed Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (CICES) education panel.
The institution’s president, Alison Watson MBE, brought together a group of influential individuals within the industry in order to address its current education and recruitment crisis.
With stated aims including to ‘Put surveying near the top of the careers list’, the panel contacted employers requesting a commitment to recruiting geospatial apprentices this year.
The resulting positive response should help courses run in the Midlands, North West and London, with educational establishments able to deliver programmes to a guaranteed number of students, rather than cancelling courses or operating at a loss due to a lack of uptake.
Alison Watson commented: ‘It’s fantastic so many are joining forces to ensure the geospatial profession can sustain itself. We can’t continue to complain about the worsening skills situation, the lack of respect or poor perceptions – it’s down to us to take action and stand up for surveying.
‘If you want to see our profession thrive, be the one to make it happen – you’re not alone. Recruit, mentor and invest in the next generation and take advantage of the support on offer!’
Who has signed up?
The full list of organisations that have already committed to at least one geospatial apprentice in September 2025 runs as follows:
- Paragon Surveys
- Balfour Beatty
- Murphy Geospatial
- Geoterra
- Macleod Simons
- Chasing Millimetres
- Severn Partnership
- PBH Rail
- Strabag
- Global Surveys
- Storm Geomatics
- Spatial Dimensions
- Powers
- Malcolm Hughes Land Surveyors.
www.cices.org