The Importance of Skills

Energy & Utility SkillsThe energy and utilities sector is fundamental to the well being of the UK economy and crucial to the way modern society functions. It is critical to facilitate an adequate supply of competent people to develop, maintain and enhance the sector.
Energy & Utility Skills (EU Skills) is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the gas, power, waste management and water industries, licensed by government and working under the guidance of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (CES).
Our commitment is to raise employer engagement, demand and investment in skills, to ensure that we have authoritative Labour Market Information for all our industries and to develop National Occupational Standards; ensuring qualifications meet employers needs.
EU Skills is part of the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils, comprising 25 licensed UK SSCs. Employer-driven, together these SSCs articulate the voice of the employers of around 90% of the UK’s workforce on skills issues.

Building on success - The first five years

Energy & Utility Skills was licensed as a SSC in December 2003. In the first five years since gaining this licence our strategic objectives have been to tackle skills shortages facing the industries that we support, in order to build strong foundations for the future of our employers.
Over time we have strengthened our sector engagement through the delivery of a series of successful initiatives:
  • A Membership scheme which has gained the support of the sector’s key employers, endorsing the activities and projects delivered on behalf of our industries.
  • Energy & Utility Skills Register (EUSR), an independent register providing employers with evidence of competence for workers operating on sites, with over 200,000 registrations, from 105,000 individuals across 20 industry schemes to date.
  • Delivery of an award winning Ambition:Energy programme that enabled over 2,000 unemployed people to enter a long-term sustainable career within the energy sector.
  • Robust Labour Market Information delivered through the development of our Sector Skills Agreement which established a platform to drive sector solutions.
  • A suite of interactive health and safety CDs, Streetsafe Sam, that were designed to raise awareness of the potential hazards faced whilst working in the waste management industry.
  • Working with the Gas Distribution Networks (GDNs), to influence a £72million investment in training as part of Ofgem’s gas Price Control Review.

The future

As a result of the current economic climate and fundamental re-direction of the energy policy at European Union and UK levels, there are far-reaching changes in prospect for the energy and utilities sector.
EU Skills has a Strategic plan which has identified five key objectives to address the challenges faced by employers in our sector the next three years and beyond.

EU Skills Strategic Objectives and Enablers

‘Our mission is to ensure that our industries have the skills they need now and in the future.’

Objectives

Critically we need to:
  1. Engage nationally and locally with our employers and act as a catalyst to help the sector meet its strategic skills needs.
  2. Ensure that qualifications and skills development pathways meet the needs of our industries.
  3. Ensure that a satisfactory market for quality training provision exists for our industries.

Enablers

We will do this by:
  1. Engaging with governments, and their agencies across the UK to ensure that policy supports our overall mission.
  2. Continuing as a high performing business capable of acting independently of government cycles.

Going forward for our industries

Gas (utilisation)

Our focus will be to work with Capita to establish standards for the new Gas Safe Register and establish an endorsement framework to improve the quality of training provision across the industry. We will also ensure accurate Labour Market Information is in place to inform employers in their resource planning decisions.

Gas (transmission & distribution)

Our aim is to expand our registration and endorsement services to enable the industry to respond to changes in the industry structure and/ or new technology practice. We will also drive industry collaboration on the back of skills investment through the Ofgem price control review determination.

Power

Our key aim is to take forward the development of the National Skills Academy for Power as a UK wide body that adds value to the work of EU Skills. We will also prioritise addressing the industry’s image, ensuring that we make it more attractive to potential new entrants and develop a more diverse workforce.

Waste Management

Our priority will be to enhance employer engagement through the development of a senior strategic forum to shape EU Skills’ priorities for the industry over the medium and long-term. In addition, we will focus on a Competence Management System (CMS) for the industry, which will ensure the provision and application of the appropriate skills training.

Water

The prime focus over the next five years is to increase the quality and capacity of training provision throughout the UK. Outputs from our workforce planning model will significantly help to inform the development strategy. We also aim to increase the greater strategic involvement of senior members of the industry with the creation of a senior skills forum.

Renewables

Our primary focus is to build collaboration across SSCs and sector bodies that have an interest in renewables. We aim to produce a cross-sectors skills strategy which will identify the transferability of existing skills and any unique renewable energy skills needed, alongside a training supply strategy to address capacity and quality.

We need your help

Ensuring that our industries have the skills they need now and in the future is an ambitious but essential goal. This goal is too big for anyone employer to address alone; instead it will require employers to collaborate, working together with their competitors, supply chain and micro businesses to increase the pool of skills labour rather than competing for labour in a diminishing pool.

For further information please visit: www.euskills.co.uk

Energy & Utility Skills Ltd
Friars Gate
1011 Stratford Road
Shirley
Solihull
B90 4BN
Tel: 0845 077 99 22
Email: enquiries@euskills.co.uk