Business

Harland & Wolff aims to hire ‘local' workers for new wind farm project

The famous Samson and Goliath cranes at the Harland and Wolff shipyard
The famous Samson and Goliath cranes at the Harland and Wolff shipyard The famous Samson and Goliath cranes at the Harland and Wolff shipyard

HARLAND and Wolff has committed to recruiting locally for as many of an anticipated 110 jobs as possible.

The former shipbuilder announced a major new contract yesterday that will see it provide 24 steel foundation jackets for a massive wind farm in the North Sea.



The multi-million pound project for ScottishPower Renewables will secure around 200 jobs at the east Belfast facility - 90 of which are already in place.



Previously, H&W has been criticised for filling vacant posts with migrants rather than indigenous workers. But company director Jonathan Guest said he hoped it would be different this time.



“We are going to try and fill them locally. I know we have come in for criticism in the past for looking elsewhere, however that has been a necessity,” he said.



“When you need 2,000 people and you need them within two months, they’re just not here. This is much more controlled growth.



“What we are going to start with is looking at local labour and see what’s there and even if those people aren’t available we’re going to work with Invest NI and the Department of the Economy and see how we can retrain people.”


Standing over 65 metres tall and weighing more than 845 tonnes, the three-legged steel jacket structures will be nearly as prominent on the Belfast skyline as the famous Samson and Goliath cranes.



The project is due to start early in 2017 and last for about 18 months.



H&W Chief Executive Robert J Cooper described the contract as “very significant for Belfast”.



“H&W is delighted to work with such a prestigious company as ScottishPower Renewables, on a project of nationally significant importance,” he said.



East Anglia ONE is a £2.5 billion offshore wind farm which will generate 714MW of electricity when completed in 2020. It will produce enough electricity to power 500,000 homes every year.