Water & Wastewater Treatment

8 | april 2015 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Comment W e're potentially going to lose more than 250 of our most experienced operations people in the next five years to retirement. Sounds scary, doesn't it? Imagine how I feel. It's my job to make sure they pass on a career's worth of knowledge of our treatment works and network – we have enough pipes to wrap around the world three times – to a new generation. We're absolutely determined at Thames Water not to be caught out by the well-documented industry skills gap, and it is my top priority, my life task even, to fill any looming void with a new generation of people. And they can't just be picking up the baton, they need to be running at full speed when the inevitable happens; when people who have devoted a lifetime to our company enjoy a well-earned retirement. Bringing in this new talent now is crucial as we need a new army of operational staff ready to take over and continue to serve our 15 million Time to fill the skills gap with the next generation Thames Water is recruiting an army of operational staff to take over from the company stalwarts who are nearing retirement customers to the highest standard possible. The enthusiasm starts with our chief executive, Martin Baggs, and spreads out to the thousands of field and office-based staff. So how do we go about making sure those nuggets of vital information stored in the memories of long serving employees are passed on? Take Beddington sewage works for example where Dave, who is due to retire soon, can manually adjust the valves on the primary settlement tanks when the computers go down. It's a fine art and not something anyone taking over from him can read in a manual. The only way is to watch and learn from the master himself and this is exactly what's happening now, new incoming staff absorbing all they can from those with a lifetime of experience. Our long-running graduate and apprenticeship schemes continue to thrive and are oversubscribed year-on-year. We currently have 62 apprentices at various stages of their four-year courses and 39 graduates on our programme. It's important we don't just train up our graduates and apprentices but make sure we retain them too. There is no greater example than our wholesale water director, Bob Collington, who joined us as a graduate more than 20 years ago. He is a real inspiration to our newest recruits and anybody with high ambitions in the sector. Outside of the traditional schemes, we launched an industry first traineeship programme in January. This puts young people, with limited or no qualifications, through a six month hands-on learning experience. They're paid to work at an operational site under an experienced mentor and also develop their skills in maths, English and IT. We expect to offer a permanent full time job to those who successfully complete the programme plus the opportunity to start working towards a Level 2 qualification in water or waste operations. In total we plan to recruit 45 trainees each year. The first group of 14 joined us in January and have been thriving in their roles. Another 30 are joining this spring. Their confidence is growing by the day and the feedback from their mentors has been really positive. Our reach doesn't just extend to potential new employees. We're also providing work experience opportunities to long-term unemployed people through our 'Give Someone a Start' scheme. The aim isn't necessarily to get candidates working in the water industry, although that has happened, but to boost their CVs and put them in a better place to find a job. The scheme is backed by EU Skills (Energy and Utility Skills) and we take in four cohorts, around 70 people, a year. Replacing 260 people and all their experience is not straightforward. But we have a plan, and I'm going to make sure it all comes together. Hear more about tackling the skills gap in utili- ties at the Utility Week Live 'Talent for the Future' keynote session, 3.30pm on april 21 in Birmingham. www.utilityweeklive.co.uk Janet Burr, Hr DirecTor, THames WaTer

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