Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | SEPTEMBER 2017 | 15 A Time to Skill S eptember is the month that many graduate and apprentice recruits start work, and water sector employers up and down the country will be preparing to welcome new colleagues. But while there will be many success stories, a host of questions remain: are there enough of them, will they stay in the sector, and will they truly replace those who have retired or le? Energy & Utilities Skills' Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy, published earlier this year, predicts a shortfall of 221,000 workers in utilities over the next ten years, as the sector suffers from the ageing workforce, a tight labour market, a lack of technical skills and engagement amongst young people, and a post-Brexit slowdown in the flow of talent from the EU. So what does this look like on the ground, and perhaps more importantly, what can be done about it? One water sector employer which is seeking to invest in the future is Severn Trent, which is set to take on 44 graduates into its leadership, technical and specialist programmes this year, and 71 apprentices. It has expanded the number of graduates it is taking on in The Talk: water industry skills engineering and project management disciplines this year, but Matthew Higgs, New Talent Manager at the utility, is in no doubt about the challenges the industry faces. "I think overall there's a chronic skills shortage - that's been written about extensively - but from our perspective there are a couple of specific pinch points that we've identified," says Higgs. "The first is that technology is now prevalent at every single level of engineering, so there is a need to upskill even existing members of staff. Electrical engineering as it was fieen years ago is not the same as it is now. So when you consider the really top end, new, almost frontier technologies that are coming in around smart networks and the internet of things, there is a really acute shortage of capability. "Secondly, at a more day-to-day operational level, there is a shortage of level 3 technicians, particularly around skills such as civil engineering and building. It's an environment that not a huge number of people want to go into – perhaps because it's been relatively low margin - and there just isn't the pool of skilled people to draw from. There's almost a generational skills gap around construction and civil engineering. There are civil engineering specialties that we've really struggled to fill at all levels." Engineering graduates with a good Faced with the double challenge of an ageing workforce and a potential barrier to bringing in EU talent due to Brexit, how can water industry employers attract the next generation to work in the sector? By James Brockett, Editor, WWT