Yesterday Utility Week published a blog which highlighted findings from the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s recent Skills and Demand in Industry survey.
Among other results, this survey of engineering employers found that respondents from the energy sector were the least aware of planned changes to the way that apprenticeships are funded.
The IET’s survey is an important temperature check across the engineering and technology sectors. It provides insight into employer views on the skills base, recruitment plans and awareness of key changes in the skills landscape and clearly there is more work to be done on raising awareness across the broader energy sector.
That said, by digging a little deeper it is possible to question how representative the reform awareness result was for the energy sector.
The study was based on responses from 400 organisations with engineering and IT skills requirements. However just 14-15 per cent of listed themselves as energy companies and only 12 per cent had more than 1000 employees.
In Energy and Utility Skills’ (EU Skills) experience, the larger firms in the energy – and water – sectors have been closely engaged and influential in the formation of new apprenticeship frameworks via government’s Trailblazer programme for apprenticeship reform.
Through the Energy & Efficiency Industrial Partnership (the Partnership), energy and utilities sector employers are at the forefront of apprenticeship reform.
The Partnership has been developed in collaboration with over 60 employers from across the sector and is supported by government through the Employer Ownership of Skills Fund.
The Partnership advocates what we believe is a radical new approach to recruitment, skills and workforce development. It supports and relies on employer collaboration to set the skills agenda and lead new approaches to training development, delivery and assessment.
Thanks to the efforts of the Partnership, a power engineering framework, focussing on skills for power network transmission and distribution, has been approved for development as a phase 1 Trailblazer and two more new apprenticeships – water process and utilities technician courses – have been submitted for phase 2.
Companies which have shown leadership and engagement in developing these Trailblazers include Northern Powergrid, UK Power Networks, National Grid, SSE and many more.
Furthermore, the Partnership’s Energy Standards and Qualifications Group (ESQG) is engaged in scrutinising the outputs of the above group’s proposals for apprenticeship reform. The ESQG includes ABB, Alstom, Balfour Beatty and Siemens as well as 12 other organisations with a vested interest in seeing apprenticeship developed which will meet the technical and business needs of the energy sector tomorrow.
Then there is a further Independent Quality Board and a process for engaging with SMEs in the supply chain to ensure that the standards being developed also respond to their needs. Since it is not unusual in our sectors for large employers to train apprentices for supply chain partners we are confident we are confident that SME input and needs have been addressed effectively.
Looking to the future, the new water process technician framework will see similarly structured engagement in the reform of apprenticeships for that sector. A group of 12 employers have committed to helping develop new standards for this apprenticeship and we also have the support of all the major professional associations for the water industry.
It is possible that the overlap between our Trailblazer participants and the IETs survey sample is small, therefore highlighting that there is more work to do in raising awareness across the wider sector.
It is also fair to say that since all Trailblazer work so far has focussed on power transmission and distribution, involving contractor and asset owner companies, there may well be less awareness of reforms at the generation and retail ends of the energy sector.
In conclusion, while we are confident that the energy and utilities sector is committed to showing leadership in and involvement with government apprenticeship reform. There is always more that can be done.