WET News

8 WET NEWS OCTOBER 2016 INTERVIEW " I'm not convinced it's a loss of interest in engineering I just think it's how we talk with people these days. It's a different dialogue," says Nick Ellins on the skills shortage. "If you sit and talk about pipes, sludge or the real methodology of engineering you do lose people. "But if you explain to somebody about the otters and the ospreys, the reed beds, anaerobic digestion, and what it does for the environment you end up with a bunch of people around you who are absolutely enthralled by what this sector does. They absolutely love it." He says engineering in itself is still highly attractive and highly valued but attracting people to it is an issue. "People, particularly the younger generations, are more interested in end outcomes, values and ethics. Salaries are important but they're not the be all and end all these days. It's quite surprising how many young people will go to a company for an OK salary but a company that they genuinely believe does good." This month, Ellins celebrates his first anniversary as chief executive of Energy & Utility Skills (EU Skills). And his passion and enthusiasm to help tackle the skills shortage in the utilities sector was plain to see when WET News met him recently for a coffee at the Costa just across the road from EU Skills' offices in Shirley, near Solihull. He explained how a strategy is being put in place to attract talent to the utilities sector; why having a skills passport is essential; and why the regulators need to "embrace their sectors". Solvable There is a 36% gap in technical vacancies that need competence. "We're now the highest sector of any in the UK economy," says Ellins. "When you look at it in terms of numbers we're 2,100 vacancies and construction is 11,900. By percentage we've got some issues because there's a trend, and it's getting worse." But he is convinced the skills shortage can be tackled, saying: "It's perfectly solvable. It's not a cliff edge at all – we just need some concerted action. Part of that is going to tried and trusted engineering groups, and part of it is asking ourselves whether we want people working here today [at Costa] to start getting involved in the sector. "The people here at Costa would be brilliant at retail. They must deal with some very difficult customers, difficult situations, multitasking so what's the difference? They might not be great for going into an anaerobic digestion plant but given time they could be good managers, strong communicators." 'Breadth of skills' EU Skills has been working on a Talent Source Network (TSN), an attraction and recruitment ecosystem, as a way to attract and encourage people to work in the utility sector. TSN is designed to deliver tailored solutions around sector attraction, recruitment and talent retention across youth entrants, apprentices, graduates, professionals and service leavers. Ellins says there are certain skills that need to be technical and engineering led, and that takes one strategy, but talent attraction is something quite different. "The breadth of skills needed are very wide, they're growing all the time, the complexity of the jobs you're going to take on, the digital nature of the jobs you're going to take on… You're going to need very different people. "We said to the Department for Work & Pensions, the next time there's a BHS or a Tata Steel or an Austin Reed on the high street, send them to us and we'll put them in a talent pool. We'll go to the utility companies and say to them 'we want you to commit jobs into this talent pool' and try and attract those people back out." There are currently more than 2,500 people, including 981 ex-military personnel, in the talent pool waiting to be "collected by the utilities". They are not going to be experts in process, says Nick Ellins, chief executive, EU Skills

• Cover