Volkswagen begins posting top jobs for St. Thomas EV battery plant

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Volkswagen has begun posting top jobs for its electric vehicle battery assembly plant in St. Thomas.

The German automaker and its EV battery subsidiary, PowerCo, are hitting LinkedIn and other job sites with postings for the $7-billion plant expected to begin production in 2027.

It may seem early to begin hiring, but executives being brought on now will oversee the startup, said Thomas Tetzlaff of VW communications in Toronto.

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“We are now hiring the managers who will bulk up their teams, and that will trickle down to the line workers,” he said. “It is a big project, we have a lot of hiring coming up and we need to have people in place.”

PowerCo already has opened an office in St. Thomas where about 40 staff are preparing for the 186,000-square-metre (two-million-square-foot) plant.

The most recent postings include jobs such as information security officer, purchasing specialist, logistics specialist, compensation and benefits manager and project management lead.

 At the 150-hectare factory site in northeast St. Thomas, ground crews are finishing site preparation that continued through the winter and construction crews are preparing to start work this spring, Tetzlaff said.

PowerCo likely will have about 100 staff hired by year’s end, he said. When the plant is up and running in 2027, it’s expected to employ as many as 3,000.

VW’s search comes as employers in the London region are struggling to find workers in many sectors. 

There are 5,322 job openings posted on the website of the Elgin Middlesex Oxford Workforce Planning and Development Board, drawn from job boards across the city and region. There are 458 manufacturing-sector postings, about 8.6 per cent of jobs listed.

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The site has had more than 5,000 job openings posted consistently since 2023, board director Deb Mountenay said.

“There are many jobs available in the city and area. This has been an ongoing issue for a while,” she said. “We are also anticipating that the demand is going to increase as new manufacturing facilities and their suppliers open up in the local area.”

London Economic Development Corp. (LEDC) is aware of the demand for workers from local businesses and is trying to meet it. It recently released an employment prospect report, in partnership with the Smart Prosperity Institute and Fanshawe College institutional research department, showing 40,000 workers will be needed to address growth, retirement and change in key London sectors in the next eight years, said Christine Wilton, LEDC’s workforce development director.

Advanced manufacturing is expected to have 6,576 openings, information technology 10,992 openings, the health sector 9,339 openings and construction 13,097 openings, the report said. 

LEDC is hosting a job fair April 23 at White Oaks Mall. Sixty companies have registered and more than 1,500 job seekers are expected.

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“It is great to see different jobs now posted by PowerCo and we are seeing demand for other workers,” said Kapil Lakhotia, LEDC’s chief executive.

”Job fairs are still a practical way of connecting job seekers with growing companies, but we have also launched a series of tactics to help address the demand for workers.”  

LEDC’s Don’t Tell Toronto ad campaign looks to lure megacity workers to London. The agency also has billboards promoting London at Ontario OnRoute locations along Highway 401.

And the LEDC’s Choose London campaign in U.S. cities aims to raise the region’s profile stateside and attract workers interested in relocating.

“We have to use different tactics,” Lakhotia said. “Currently, there is a lot of growth in the economy here and  a lot of interest from job seekers in locating here.”

Since the two ad campaigns launched, there have been more than 80,000 page views a month on LondonTechJobs, LondonMfgJobs and LondonHealthJobs websites, he said. 

LEDC has also teamed with Western University to develop an artificial intelligence and automated solution to “scrape” jobs from company websites and broadcast them through city job portals, driving traffic to London. 

LEDC also is partnering with Will Employment Solutions, which works with new Canadians, to run sector-specific career events to connect newcomers with local employers. It will hold an advanced manufacturing event April 16.

ndebono@postmedia.com

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