Kie-Ren Lau graduated from the University of Nottingham with a Master’s in Civil Engineering and briefly worked in the railway industry but made the move to electricity.

The opportunity proved popular with more than 4,400 university leavers applying for the roles at the country’s biggest electricity distributor, and skills he learns will contribute to maintaining a reliable electricity network as people increasingly use electricity to run low carbon technologies such as Electric Vehicles and heat pumps.

Hailing from Forest Hill in south London, the new graduate civil design engineer will work for the commercial arm of the electricity firm at UK Power Networks Services – putting his previous experience to use in many projects that help power the country’s railways. UK Power Networks Services delivers projects in aviation, rail, defence, ports and other commercial and industrial ventures. 

Kie-Ren said: “I feel very excited and privileged to be part of the first cohort as I believe I have a lot of knowledge to learn from the existing and experienced staff.

“This job allows me to solve real-world, complex issues that have a tangible effect on a large group of people, which gives me a great sense of pride.”

Kie-Ren’s day-to-day responsibilities will be supporting substation designs on UK Power Networks Services’ projects.

On top of his passion for the electricity industry, he found the role appealing due to his interest in climate change. He said: “This job allows me to directly contribute towards decarbonising the energy industry. I feel proud and responsible for playing my part in the UK’s journey towards Net Zero as it is a major issue, which can only be solved by everyone working as a team and contributing.”

Kie-Ren has ambitions to become a principal engineer managing a team to resolve complex and large-scale projects.

The scheme is the first of its kind in five years at the electricity firm, designed to tackle the fact that engineering roles are among the hardest to fill as university leavers are more inclined to join other industries such as finance, data and IT. However, according to Engineering UK, engineering and technology jobs are predicted to grow faster than other occupations, in all UK regions between now and 2030. In addition, the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) estimates there is a 173,000 shortfall in workers in the STEM sector – costing the economy £1.5bn per year.

Stephanie Baxter, head of policy at the IET added: “Graduate schemes like this are a great step towards plugging the nation’s STEM skills gap and ensuring the next generation are equipped with the right skills and knowledge to engineer a better world for us all.

“Many people still don’t understand the work of engineers or appreciate how much society depends on their skills and innovation. This is why the UK is not going to have enough engineers in the next decade, so it is vital that we attract lots of new people from different backgrounds.”