Ask any Fire & Security business what’s holding them back and one answer comes up again and again:
“We can’t find enough engineers.”
This Fire and Security engineer shortage is creating a ripple effect across the industry. Not just for hiring, but for marketing too.
“I’m worried you’ll get me more enquiries than I can handle,” says one installer.
“What’s the point of marketing if we can’t deliver on the work?” says another.
That’s the reality we’re seeing. Marketing is not failing. It is being paused, and growth is being delayed by a lack of engineers.
The Fire & Security engineer shortage is a hiring problem and a marketing one.
No Engineers, No Confidence to Grow
When businesses don’t have enough engineers, growth feels risky.
And when growth feels risky, marketing gets shelved.
That’s a real problem. Because even if you’re busy now, staying visible is what secures your future. That applies to attracting ideal clients and to attracting future engineers.
There’s another route worth considering alongside recruitment. Some companies stop waiting to hire and instead reshape the work they go after to fit the engineers they already have.
Part of the Shortage Is an Exodus to Self-Employment
Not every missing engineer has left the industry. Some have left employment.
Engineers who feel undervalued set up on their own. The pitch is freedom and better money. What arrives with it is quoting, chasing invoices, managing people and carrying the risk.
“I left because I wanted more,” says Bradley Lucas, founder of Seen Services. “But I quickly realised being a business owner meant less time on the tools, more time fixing problems I didn’t sign up for.”
Bradley built Seen Services around that experience. He now invites engineers to come and work for him rather than go it alone. The model gives skilled engineers somewhere to do the work they trained for without running a business around it.
This matters if you are trying to grow. An engineer who goes solo and then struggles is capacity that has left the employed pool without leaving the trade. Apprenticeships do not solve that one. Giving good engineers a reason to stay does. We have written separately about what going solo actually involves.
Unpredictable capacity has knock-on effects. We cover those in how to manage workload peaks and troughs in Fire & Security.
The Other Half Is Not Enough People Coming In
Retention only holds the line. It does not grow the pool. For that you need people entering the trade who were not in it before.
One route worth understanding properly is apprenticeships.
Enter Skills for Security: Building the Workforce of the Future
At The Security Event, the WorldSkills UK Electronic Fire & Security Systems national qualifiers run on the show floor.
Apprentices take over a part-installed fire alarm and intrusion detection system and finish it to specification, judged by NSI and SSAIB, in front of anyone walking past. Skills for Security is the organising partner.
That is where Jo got talking to Richard Aldridge, a tutor at Skills for Security, who was watching his own students work under that kind of pressure and looking rather proud of them.
Skills for Security train the next generation of Fire & Security engineers through a flexible apprenticeship programme, delivered through regional training centres across the UK.
The curriculum is structured around 14 training blocks, blending classroom learning with real-world site experience.
“They come to college in blocks. Five days at a time, across 14 blocks in total,” explains Richard Aldridge, tutor at Skills for Security. “Each time, they focus on something different. We teach the theory but also get them hands-on with practical work they may not have the chance to learn on site.”
That covers everything from system installation and commissioning to paperwork and regulations. Apprentices start by shadowing.
“By block 10, in their second year, they should be confident enough to start installing systems on their own,” Richard says. “Some are already doing that by the end of year one.”
Apprentices aren’t just learning theory. Thanks to sponsors, Skills for Security gets access to equipment from leading manufacturers, so apprentices train on the systems they’ll actually see on site.
We know many business owners worry about the time it takes to train someone new. A structured programme means apprentices can start contributing to real projects while they are still learning, rather than after they have finished.
Being known as a business that trains and supports new talent also helps your reputation. Not just with clients, but with future hires. It shows you care about quality, development and doing things properly.
It is not only school leavers. Career changers retrain for a new future too. Richard knows exactly what that is like, because he did it himself. After years in print finishing and installing smart meters, he retrained in Fire & Security at the age of 39. He now helps others take the same path.
These are messages more installation companies need to hear. Which is why Lollipop founder, Jo Shaer sat down with Richard to find out how the programme actually works for apprentices and for the employers taking them on.
And here’s the win for marketing. With a reliable team in place, businesses can say yes to more work with confidence, knowing they have the capacity to deliver what they promote.
Because the truth is, our clients don’t just need better Fire & Security marketing. They need a solution to the Fire & Security engineer shortage.
Without that, growth feels risky. With it, marketing starts working again.
Don’t Put Your Marketing on Hold Because of the Fire & Security Engineer Shortage
Two things move the number of engineers available to you. Keeping the good ones you have, and bringing new ones in. Marketing that runs while you do both is what turns the second year into a busier one than the first.
At Lolly, we’re helping Fire & Security companies stay visible, trusted and in demand and pointing them towards the organisations training the engineers the industry needs.
Want help building your brand while building your team? Let’s talk.
