Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 21ST - 27TH SEPTEMBER 2018 | 21 Operations & Assets What were the initiative's KPIs? UU says continuous improvement is a key business driver. It evaluates performance against strategic objectives to drive improve- ments. Its apprenticeship programmes are measured with monthly performance reports informing key stakeholders and mapping into the company scorecard. Currently, UU is achieving a 92 per cent timely comple- tion rate, which it says is "significantly high" when compared with the national average rate of 58.7 per cent. What has been the impact on the company? To date, UU has delivered more than 1,000 individual training interventions as a direct output from the process knowledge review and it is seeing a notable rise in the confi- dence and competence of its personnel in these technical roles. Since introducing its "one curriculum" approach, the company has taken on 115 apprentices in various roles, and has sup- plemented its apprentice programmes by also delivering the water industry standards to a further 40 new-to-role employees across water and wastewater network and treat- ment over the past two years. UU's "one curriculum" approach ensures that it focuses on the continual development of staff at all levels to deliver a high level of competence across the company. Were there any hurdles along the way? One of the biggest challenges UU found was that its innovative and refreshed approach to identifying training needs resulted in a further need to move quickly from idea to implementation. The "process knowledge review" was highly successful in identifying development needs across the company's Winner's comments "Our submission told the story of our 'One Curricu- lum' approach to the wholesale business and it's fair to say that we all know that the development and implementation of this has not been easy. "Creating something as disruptive as this and chal- lenging the status quo within the water sector was always going to take some determination and lots of hard work. However, we are most definitely gaining the rewards of this on many levels, be it through our apprentice programme, knowledge or competence training programmes." PHIL WHITE, HEAD OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT United Utilities on awards night tional facility in Bolton, which was further expanded earlier this year. The facility boasts four interactive train- ing rooms as well as dedicated practical training areas for all of its technical disci- plines. These include a laboratory, chlorine training rig, replica water treatment works, confined space rig, live electrical panels, mechanical workshops, over 30m of pres- sured pipework and a multi-discipline health and safety training area. technical roles and the resultant appetite for fast implementation of training interven- tions was evident at all levels. The company needed to develop a wide range of training packages and expand the training delivery team, while quickly managing an expansion of its technical training centre and resources. What was the cost of the initiative? The company has invested more than £2.5 million in the development of its educa- United Utilities' Bolton training centre, before (top) and after

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