Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | DECEMBER 2022 | 27 Water then make sure you have the right materials and you get a speedier time to x". He adds: "You are not changing the people, you are training them on new tech- niques. [It is about] upskilling not reskill- ing." A key point is to retain sta as roles change: "For some people, that wasn't what they wanted to do, so we reskilled every sin- gle person that wanted to do a di erent job to nd them a di erent career." Digitalisation is not the only disruptor – nor the only "pinch point" where the need to ll a gap becomes urgent. Energy & Utility Skills (EU Skills) chief executive Phil Beach says the industry can take advantage of the government's "boot camps" framework, ini- tially used for digital skills, "where you could draw down funding to increase the digital literacy of your workforce". It has moved on towards xing an immediate skills issue, for example the recent shortage of HGV drivers. "The point is that the government has now identi ed a mechanism and funding to meet a speci c demand. So one of the in association with In association with I N S I G H T R E P O R T Building the skills pipeline – how the water network can get it right first time In this report Why the clock is ticking for the skills challenge Does the sector attract recruits? How to expand the recruitment 'universe'? C A S E S T U D Y In the field: how competency keeps the water flowing V I E W P O I N T David Williams, Radius Systems Download the report Download the report Building the Skills Pipeline How the Water Network Can Get It Right First Time free at: https:// utilityweek.co.uk/building-the-skills-pipeline-how-the-water- network-can-get-it-right- rst-time/ things the water industry can do working within EU Skills is to identify those upscal- ing and reskilling or retraining requirements that are required to meet the skills challenge and target bespoke courses to bring them up to speed. The trick is to identify and gener- ate those courses to attract that government funding." Where are we now? The research undertaken for this report reveals that the industry's core skills require- ments have not changed – but so" er skills like project management and digitalisation can help deliver them more e• ciently. That variety can help the industry recruit the peo- ple it needs but equally important is reskill- ing and upskilling to provide a career path for existing workers. Recruitment is multifaceted: local and national, broad-based and within speci c groups and — exible working can help. There is a framework for developing skills that o ers both broad-based mechanisms like apprenticeships and intense upskilling to respond to a speci c need. But the industry is bearing the incidental costs of developing expert sta who can get it "right rst time". Janet Wood, freelance journalist

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