Engineering membership of St Albans City of Expertise expands
St Albans City of Expertise has expanded the professional services network’s engineering membership by signing up Van Zyl & De Villiers Consulting Engineers.
The City of Expertise works to raise the profile of the professional services sector in the District of St Albans. Members include legal and accountancy firms, chartered surveyors, chartered engineering and infrastructure companies as well as financial services professionals.
Van Zyl & De Villiers provides mechanical and electrical engineering services for building projects and joins design engineers Aecom as specialist chartered engineering members of the network.
The City of Expertise actively promotes St Albans as a place to do business in the professional services sector. As this sector expands, more opportunities will be created for people to secure skilled employment locally.
The City of Expertise is helping the sector attract and retain skilled professionals by promoting the District as a vibrant place to work. It organises networking events for young professionals so that they can build business contacts with their peers and share best practice. In addition, it is developing links with schools with a view to encouraging young people to pursue careers in the professional services locally.
This is of particular interest to Paul Vorster, Director at Van Zyl & De Villiers, who said: “There is a local shortage of professionals specialising in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). As a business, we want to work with the City of Expertise to promote St Albans as a great place to work for skilled engineering professionals. We also need to look to the future and are passionate about encouraging young local people to pursue careers in STEM subjects.”
Cllr Beric Read, Chair of the City of Expertise and Portfolio Holder for Business and the Community at St Albans City and District Council, said: “As both Chair of the group and a Chartered Physicist, I am pleased to welcome the addition of a further engineering member to the City of Expertise. St Albans has a flourishing professional services sector that covers businesses specialising in law, finance, accountancy, surveying as well as engineering. The City of Expertise membership network has been set up to support this expanding professional services sector as it contributes significantly to the local economy. There is also a role for the network to play in encouraging young people living in the District to take up careers in the professional services sector locally. By working together members can benefit from economies of scale, drive recruitment, and share best practice.”
Councillor contact:
Councillor Beric Read, Chair of the City of Expertise and Portfolio Holder for Business and the Community at St Albans City and District Council
Mob: 07956 220264, Email: cllr.b.read@stalbans.gov.uk
Contact for the media:
Amanda Wilkinson, Senior Communications Officer, St Albans City and District Council
Tel: 01727 819317, E-mail: amanda.wilkinson@stalbans.gov.uk
Contact for Van Ziel & De Villiers:
Paul Vorster, Director
Tel: 01727 731560, E-Mail: Paul@vzdv.com
Notes:
Van Zyl & De Villiers Consulting Engineers Limited operates mainly in the areas of mechanical and electrical engineering in relation to building services. Based in St Albans, the practice has over the last 30 years completed in excess of 2,000 projects in the leisure, commercial, retail, health and IT sectors.
The St Albans City of Expertise aims to raise the profile of the professional services sector of the City and District of St Albans.
Photo:
City of Expertise welcomes new member: Cllr Beric Read, Chair of the City of Expertise and Portfolio Holder for Business and the Community at St Albans City and District Council (right) and Paul Vorster, Director at Van Zyl & De Villiers (left)