Located in Acton Jobcentre Plus, West London, the hub opened yesterday with HS2 chief executive Mark Wild in attendance
The HS2 recruitment hub acts as a drop-in facility to help local people gain employment and training opportunities as part of the HS2 programme.
Besides HS2, the hub also offers opportunities to work on other major infrastructure and regeneration projects nearby.
More than 2,000 HS2 employees are apprentices
Of the roughly 30,000 people working on the project, more than 2,000 are working via an apprenticeship, and more than 5,000 people had started a new career with the programme having been previously unemployed.
Meanwhile, around a third of the total HS2 workforce is based in London, and even more career opportunities are expected to be created as the project goes on.
HS2 are showcasing a worker from East Acton, Nazia Hashim, as one that secured a job after never considering a career in the construction industry before, but after being made redundant in the COVID-19 pandemic, decided to join.
Nazia now works for the Skanska Costain STRABAG joint venture, a key HS2 construction partner, and is responsible for boosting her team’s skills in working to connect Old Oak Common to Euston Station.
Nazia said: “Major projects like HS2 provide so many different career pathways. In just a short space of time, I’ve progressed from a role in business administration to becoming a fully qualified quantity surveyor.”
Mark Wild, chief executive of HS2 Ltd, said: “We’re building one the UK’s biggest and best-connected railway stations at Old Oak Common, and that investment has already led to thousands of jobs being created.
“Old Oak Common Station will boost the local economy by £10bn over the next decade and we’re already seeing the ripple effect. Huge regeneration projects are transforming the area around the station site, and the number of new homes and commercial premises being built is spearheading even more new career opportunities.
“The recruitment hub will create a one-stop shop for local people who want to play a part in shaping this new west London district, whether working directly on HS2, or other major projects that form part of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation’s Old Oak illustrative masterplan and Places for London’s regeneration plans.”
HS2 on thin ice?
Last month, the National Audit Office released a report stating that HS2 must complete its reset and find more value for money, as we have now reached a point where the cost of cancelling the project would be nearly as much as completing it.
Completion of HS2 is expected to bring a £10bn economic uplift, 30,000 new jobs and 41,000 new homes in the West Midlands, and 18,000 jobs and 22,000 homes around Old Oak Common, London.
But further value must be salvaged, says the report, as commercial contracts are being overhauled to try and save £2bn, and the NAO has identified a further £500m in disallowable contractor costs.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “Today’s report confirms that HS2 will arrive years later, cost vastly more – up to £102.7bn – and deliver less than originally planned.
“While governance is improving and HS2’s designation as a mega-project has introduced more streamlined decision-making, more work is needed to complete the reset and restore confidence. The government must prove it has finally gripped this programme and begin to rebuild public trust in a project whose reputation has been severely damaged by a litany of failures, so that it can start delivering long-promised benefits.”
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