Making Excellence the Standard

Attract new talent Develop the workforce Assure a high level of competence

Energy and Utility Skills works across the UK, to ensure the power &

gas, water & sewerage, waste management & recycling sectors have a

sustainable workforce….now and in the future.

Nick Ellins, Group Chief Executive

• Inform UK-wide workforce and skills policy, strategy and legislation

• Manage 1.1million utility sector skills records

• Design competency schemes and operate systems to demonstrate knowledge retention

• Produce more than a quarter of million competency assurance cards

• Build apprenticeships to meet the new Apprenticeship Levy Standards

• Operate the end point assessment service that graduates utility apprentices

• Piloting competency ‘passports’ and ways of bringing skills investment via procurement

• Leadership of Smart 2020 smart metering workforce competence and accreditation

How we do this

Apparently there is a ‘Skills Cliff Edge’….. AGAIN

All images sourced courtesy of Bing.Com

Workforce Renewal Challenge

Workforce Availability is Changing

“The employment rate now stands at 73.3%, the highest rate of people in work since the ONS began keeping records in 1971.” BBC News – Business

But despite the workforce renewal pressures, the accompanying National Infrastructure Plan for Skills contains no strategy for the utilities or their partners.

Your role in the UK economy is pivotal

£0.5 Trillion

Workforce and Employment Environment

New Apprenticeship Levy not

designed to aide delivery of

National Infrastructure Plan or

Regulatory determinations

Increasing competition from rail

with core job roles. Government

ultimately own rail and the

revenues - a virtuous circle

Increasingly different policy

and legal approach being

taken by the four UK nations

Department for Education don’t

understand regulated industries,

working in isolation from the

sponsoring Government departments

and regulators

Ofgem and Ofwat strategies

are currently silent.

Resilience duty sees

individual company risk, not

the sector

Whole UK skills governance and

structure is changing….without the

involvement of sector Departments

or regulators

Long-term plans and price controls

don’t look at sector, regional or pan-

industry workforce renewal risks

Workforce and skills need

missing from BEIS/DECC

and DEFRA strategies

No strategy for utilities within

the HM Treasury National

Infrastructure Plan for Skills

Workforce Renewal & Skills Strategy

The first ever workforce renewal and skills strategy for

the energy & utilities sector was launched

on 9 February 2017 across the UK

Includes:

• Mass talent and employment initiatives in partnership

with the DWP and Job Centre Plus

• Sector wide initiatives to increase investment in training

• Diversity, equality and inclusion

• Skills passports, to increase productivity and optimise

investment in training

• Apprenticeships embedded across the strategy

Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy

David Smith, Chief Executive, Energy Networks Association

“Our networks are undergoing a transformation to deliver electricity and

gas in a smarter, low carbon energy system. Ensuring that the right skills

are available in the workforce will be crucial to meeting new challenges and

will require long term thinking in order to be successful. I welcome the

launch of the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership workforce renewal and

skills strategy, which makes a valuable contribution to what is a very important issue for the energy industry over the coming years.“

Competence, Behaviours and Culture

Attract new talent Develop the workforce Assure a high level of competence

Thank you

Nick Ellins, Group Chief Executive

Making Excellence the Standard