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UTILITY WEEK | 9TH - 15TH DECEMBER 2016 | 19 connected to the electricity network by Electricity North West's predeces- sor, Norweb. Martin Deehan, operations director for Electricity North West, said: "This was an incredibly difficult job due to the extremely remote location and sensitive area." If you have an asset or project you would like to see featured in this slot, please contact: paul.newton@fav-house.com Pipe up Emma Fitzgerald L ike all essential services, the water industry is changing, and that means that we as a company need to change with it to make sure we offer cus- tomers a level of service that is constantly evolving and improving. Alongside that, we also need to make sure we can help develop our existing workforce in such a way that they take what is rapidly evolving technology and not only become familiar with it but also become advocates of using it to the benefit of our customers. For organisations like Severn Trent, that means not only adapting our ways of working but also supporting processes like training more than ever. For our staff, it means being open to transforming the way they work by embracing new technology, new tools and new career paths at an age when they might previously have expected to have become teachers rather than students. Clearly, colleagues who are at an early stage in their careers – apprentices and graduates, for example – are already learning those technology lessons because it is pretty much business as usual for them. Those in mid-career, say with 20 years' experience, are far more used to a more classroom-based learning system, and so they are at a potential disadvantage when it comes to using the new systems that are becoming an essential part of everyday working life. That means we as a com- pany, and as a sector, need to change the way we look at training for "digital immi- grants" who have years of expe- rience behind them, and who are doing a great operational job but are more comfort- able turning a valve than tapping an app. We have to make sure that our training offers this group more immediacy, with more time for exploration in the learning process. It's no longer about a teacher standing at the front of a room, it's about interactivity to help these more experienced people become as tech savvy as those at the start of their careers. From a Severn Trent point of view, that's where we can use the Apprenticeship Levy to provide what is effec- tively on-the-job training for a group of highly experi- enced, extremely capable individuals who simply need to become better equipped to take advantage of a more connected world. It's up to us to help that middle generation because it's only by making it feel natural for them that we can consistently offer customers the level of service they expect from us every day. Emma Fitzgerald, managing director wholesale operations, Severn Trent "The water sector needs to ensure that older operational staff are at ease with using the latest digital technology." We as a company, and as a sector, need to change the way we look at training for "digital immigrants" Operations & Assets