Kirby Group Engineering has developed a new and world-class structured training and development programme for graduates and apprentices. Kirby provides electrical and mechanical engineering contracting services and the company’s portfolio includes successful projects within data centres, life sciences, industrial, substation, and renewables sectors in Ireland and across Europe.
Kirby has developed excellent apprentices and benefited from the skills of apprentices for more than 50 years, and many of the company's senior leaders began their careers as apprentices. The company is now one of the largest recruiters of apprentices in Ireland. The programme provides new team members with excellent structured technical training, graduated practical work challenges, coaching and mentoring, and structured personal development and support. Many Kirby apprentices have competed their training at international level.
When selecting new colleagues, Kirby focuses on bright, action-oriented, analytical men and women who are interested in how and why things work, who are practical-minded and enjoy working with their hands. Kirby supplies all the training and support needed to develop people into world class, electrical, mechanical, or instrumentation professionals and opens a world of career progression opportunities.
When it comes to the graduate programme, Kirby’s recruitment leaders are looking for bright, ambitious, driven, and motivated people who are looking to kickstart their careers through one of the most successful and rewarding programmes of its kind in the mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines.
With an expected intake of 20 in 2021, the graduate programme offers the opportunity to work on some of the most prestigious projects in Ireland, the UK, and mainland Europe. The aim is to develop the best and brightest engineering talent to become the future leaders of Kirby. Recruits are challenged with real work assignments and offered quality personal, professional, project management, and commercial training. Being on the Kirby team means being part of a multi-skilled and adaptable workforce, ready for any challenge and prepared to take on a wide variety of national and international engineering projects.
Group head of human resources at Kirby, Fergus Barry, explains why he believes the company is a great place to build a highly successful engineering career: “As well as offering top-class training and challenging projects, Kirby always puts people first, and by-and-large I’m proud to say that our national and international growth and ambition provides a great opportunity for real learning and fast career development. Our professionals will have the opportunity to travel and sample living and working abroad. We currently deploy teams in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland. Kirby values diversity and particularly welcomes applications from those with diverse backgrounds or those who bring us a diversity in how we think.”
The firm recently marked the milestone of directly employing more than 1,000 people. More than 2,000 people are deployed across the portfolio of projects in Ireland, the UK, and mainland Europe.
Kirby has five core values: people, safety, quality, delivery, and value. Since its foundation, the vision for Kirby has been to become the most trusted provider of mechanical and electrical engineering and construction services in the industry and to always go the extra mile for its customers.
Group MD Mark Flanagan speaks from experience when it comes to apprentices: “I began my career as an electrical apprentice and it has benefited my career every step of the way. Little did I know then that it would lead me to the top of an organisation dealing with multi-million euro construction and engineering projects across Europe, but it was a key foundation in my development. Likewise, I take great pride in the quality contributions of those in our graduate programme. It’s all about playing your role in the team and I’m looking forward to meeting this year’s new recruits. They are the future of Kirby.”
