Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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4 | FEBRUARY 2017 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Industry news March Water companies have backed a new strategy to bring in 221,000 new recruits by 2027 in the utilities sector to help ensure customers will continue to get the essential service they need in the future. Utilities industry leaders have come together, as the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership, to build and launch the first ever joint Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy for the sector. The Strategy has been created to take the first steps towards ensuring that the UK's vital utilities sector retains a safe, skilled, resilient and sustainable workforce. It sets out for the first time, in one place, the reality of the challenges faced, immediate initiatives that are underway and the ambitions the Skills Partnership shares in moving towards achieving a more sustainable future. This Strategy sets its immediate focus to 2020, Water companies back 'workforce renewal' strategy for skills in the utilities sector Contract Tracker Scottish Water deal for Jacopa Wastewater treatment systems and solutions provider Jacopa has won a framework contract with Scottish Water to provide modular submerged aerated flotation (SAF) systems for a five-year period. The contract, which has an option to extend for a further three years, will see Jacopa provide the utility with its Copa SAF system. Servelec in Anglian tie-up Anglian Water has selected Servelec Technologies' S2000micro remote telemetry unit to monitor much of its private pumping network. The utility will install 750 of the field devices over the next 12 months. The company's decision to install the WITS-certified RTU further strengthens Servelec Technologies' relationship with Anglian Water, which also uses Servelec's water network management advisory tool MISER. Birmingham job for Kier Kier has announced it has been awarded a multimillion-pound deal on Severn Trent Water's Birmingham Resilience Project. The award of the new 50/50 joint venture infrastructure contract, worth £100M, with Severn Trent on the flagship supply project is one of several key deals the firm has won in recent months. and then will continue to evolve as the Skills Partnership and the wider industry works with key stakeholders, interest groups and other sectors to deliver an extensive programme of change and cooperation. Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of Water UK, said: "The water sector, like others, needs continuously to improve to meet our customers' expectations for providing water services safely, affordably and responsibly. "It is therefore essential that we upskill our current people and attract the very best young talent for the future, and the Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy is a powerful initiative to help us do that." The Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership has already started to take action - including a commitment from 20 utility- based businesses to a new 12-month pilot programme that seeks to encourage 84% The proportion of water sector engineers who believe that there is a skills shortage in the sector, according to the Engineering: Voice of the Workforce survey by recruitment firm Matchtech. CONFINED SPACES: Engineers at work on the £3.6M Yorkshire Water project to upgrade Barden aqueduct near Bradford. OVIC, Ken Rodney Construction and Mott MacDonald Bentley have all been involved in the project to restore and modernise the Victorian-era asset. people into industry careers and develop a significant future sector talent pool. The Talent Source Network aims to help employers access hard-to-reach and diverse individuals as well as encourage professionals who are looking for new opportunities or to retrain. Service leavers and those with transferable skills from adjacent sectors such as oil and gas will find the utility environment a natural home and are already a target audience of the pilot programme. In a recent survey of 2,500 engineers by recruitment firm Matchtech, 84% of engineers in the water sector agreed with the statement that there was a skills shortage in the sector. Despite this, confidence amongst water engineers is relatively high, with 59% saying they are confident the sector will grow in the next year and 59% predicting their organisation will hire more people. 4 | MARCh 2017 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk