Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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The Works: Diversity and Skills 16 | DECEMBER 2018 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk • UNITED UTILITIES FINDS BENEFITS IN WORKING WITH EDUCATION SECTOR L ooking at ways to inspire young females to follow a career in engineering is not something that has been lost on United Utilities. "Our future success relies on attract- ing the next generation of engineers both male and female," Joanne Rands, the company's head of process delivery engineering, says. "We have realised an ideal opportunity to showcase what we're all about is to work more closely with the education sector. "Allowing young female students to see close up what important work we do is hopefully going to attract them into an exciting and rewarding career, hopefully at United Utilities." The company also runs award- winning apprenticeship and graduate schemes. Kemi Akinola joined the company five years ago a„er learning about Unit- ed Utilities at an engineering careers fair that the company attended. "I thoroughly enjoyed my master's degree, which was in environmental engineering and sustainable develop- ment," she says. "During this degree, I learnt about water and wastewater treatment in detail, and I was motivat- ed to pursue a career that would enable me to contribute to providing people with water – an essential resource – whilst protecting the environment. "The importance of environmental protection demonstrated in United Utilities' projects was what attracted me to the company, and subsequently led me to apply for a place on its gradu- ate engineering scheme. "My job as an area process engineer is all about problem-solving in order to provide solutions to a range of prob- lems, using two of my favourite sub- jects at school – maths and chemistry. "My advice to anyone thinking of a career in engineering is to go for it! I find that being an engineer is an ex- tremely rewarding career because you are contributing to solving problems and enhancing people's lives by what you do each day." • APPRENTICESHIP HELPS SEVERN TRENT ENGINEER MAKE POSITIVE IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT H annah Black joined Severn Trent in August 2013 a„er completing her A-levels. She says the Severn Trent scheme appealed as she could see the positive difference the company makes, and she wanted to be part of that. "I was inspired by my grandad to pursue a career in engineering," she says. "I felt that the apprenticeship route would suit my needs and allow me to get the hands-on experience while learning too. I knew I wanted to be part of an industry which has a positive impact on its customers and the environment. That's why a role in the water industry really appealed to me and the Severn Trent apprenticeship scheme seemed perfect for this. "I started my career as a mechani- cal maintenance technician working on wastewater treatment sites and completed my advanced apprenticeship while in this role. I loved the varied na- ture of this role and the skills I learned were invaluable. Despite working in a male-dominated team, I never felt like this held me back. "About a year ago I moved into a new role within the capital delivery department as a project engineer; now I deliver capital programmes on the kinds of sites I used to maintain. "It's really useful for me to have had the hands-on experience as it allows me to make decisions based on the reality of operating and maintaining a waste- water treatment works." Kemi Akinola (le ) and Joanne Rands are currently working in engineering for United Utilities Hannah Black was inspired to take up a career in engineering by her grandad engineers through to behavioural scientists through to those who understand data and are au fait with modern technology, everything from mobile phones to AI to VR and beyond," he says. "We need to be open to where people come from. A good contact of mine, for example, is involved in civil engineering in the water sector but, when he was making the judgement as to what he did with his life, he could easily have been a classical musician. It's o„en how you bring in these people with that diversity of knowledge and background, because when they come in they're not just focused on a set way of thinking." Ellins agrees that there should be no limits to the search for greater diversity. "The biggest issue on all of this is about being representative of your community," he says. "In itself, the male-female divide, when you look by competence – because people are employing by competence – doesn't seem to make any difference. "From the competence point of view alone, everyone's saying: 'I'm an equal opportunities employer, I'm not going to skew my employment to any form of bias whether it be gender, race or anything', but the key point comes down to this: Do you get balanced thinking if you have a skew to one workforce type over another? "The prize is not so much that we need more females – the prize is to have a workforce that reflects the gender, language, ethnicity, religious beliefs and everything else of the community you serve every day." Continued from page 15