Farrans has opened applications for 60 graduate, placement and apprenticeship roles across civil engineering and quantity surveying, starting June and September 2027, an intake that matters to building and architecture professionals because it shows a major contractor treating early-careers recruitment as a scalable pipeline rather than a fixed annual quota, at a time when firms across the sector are competing for the same limited pool of entrants.

Farrans is a Belfast-headquartered civil engineering and building contractor, now owned by Sisk, specialising in water, energy, aviation, transportation, marine, public sector, industrial and commercial projects across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

The company employs more than 600 people from offices in London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Monaghan and Belfast, and runs Farrans Foundation, an award-winning two-year graduate programme combining site experience with structured learning and mentoring.

Applications remain open until December 2026, with interviews through autumn and offers made in early 2027; high-performing placement students may also receive bursaries.

The structural driver is a demographic, not cyclical, UK construction skills gap, with the CITB's Construction Workforce Outlook 2026-2030 estimating an average of 41,200 additional workers will be needed each year to 2030, as more than a quarter of the current workforce is over 55.

For the sector, the timing matters because this year's 60-place intake extends a programme that previously ran at 50 places, showing Farrans scaling its graduate pipeline ahead of demand rather than reacting to a shortage once it bites, at a point when apprenticeship starts nationally remain below what employers say they need.

Sisk's ownership of Farrans means this recruitment drive also feeds a wider group already expanding UK capacity, following the formation of a consolidated Sisk Infrastructure unit spanning Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain that will need civil engineers and quantity surveyors at scale.

The broader implication for the sector is that contractors treating early-careers recruitment as a compounding, year-on-year investment, rather than a one-off scheme, are best positioned to staff the multi-year infrastructure and construction pipeline now building across the UK and Ireland.

Source: The Irish News / CITB