The IT trade body ATSCo is to expand into engineering recruitment and plans to launch a new division in the new year.

Chief executive Ann Swain told Recruiter that ATSCo had taken the step because engineering recruitment was facing similar challenges to IT staffing.

There would also be no need for ATSCo, which is an acronym for Association of Technology Staffing Companies, to change its name.

Swain said the organisation planned to kickstart the new division with a meeting scheduled for the end of May in Manchester, the heartland of the engineering recruitment sector.

She said: “It is a natural progression because of the overlap between the two sectors.

“Engineering recruitment firms are now facing clients demanding managed service provider agreements and the advent of legal requirements such as professional indemnity insurance.”

ATSCo has already considered creating a finance recruitment division but abandoned the plans because of insufficient demand.