Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE), the electricity network company, has awarded two top electrical engineering students a Scholarship worth £24,000 each.
Daniel Robinson and Mark Lindsay are the first students to benefit from the NIE Electrical Engineering Scholarship Programme, which is being run in conjunction with Queen’s University Belfast.
The scholarship is open to first year electrical engineering students and includes an annual bursary and a book allowance every year and payment towards university fees. It also includes paid summer placements and a one year training experience with NIE.
Speaking at the event at Queen’s University Belfast, Gordon Parkes, human resources director at NIE said: “There is a significant shortage of electrical engineering graduates and these skills will be in big demand into the future.
“NIE has struggled to recruit the appropriate numbers of graduates in the past so we took a decision to sponsor our own students. The NIE Scholarship programme will provide these students with excellent experience working on real engineering projects as they study for their degree. From day one they will be mentored by a professional electrical engineer who will ensure that their classroom learning is complimented by the appropriate practical experience.”
NIE estimates that it will need to recruit a number of engineers every year for the foreseeable future to meet the growing demands placed on the electricity network.
The key drivers are the need to replace specialist skills as a result of a significant number of key employees retiring over coming years and the requirement to replace the ageing electricity network in Northern Ireland.
Professor Stan Scott, head of the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s said: “Engineers face global challenges including the provision of energy for all. I would therefore encourage more pupils from schools to undertake a degree in engineering which will equip them to shape and benefit modern society in exciting ways.”