The Future Water Association is highlighting the fact that the sector is facing an ever-widening gap in its ‘pipeline’ of new people and is urging it to help put water at the top of the careers agenda.
Resilience is set to feature prominently during the upcoming Price Review - and the availability of a skilled workforce and the future skills of ‘new people’ is critical to the ability of both the water companies and the wider supply chain in the sector to delivering it.
Work by Energy & Utility Skills points to the need to have a complete turnover of staff at the utility level by 2024 - across the supply chain it is logical to assume that a similar turnover pattern exists.
Both PwC and Fujitsu have found that at school level pupils are unlikely to know anyone working in utilities, and generally operate in social circles where no one contemplates a future in the water or energy sector, coupled with the view that utilities do not operate ‘state of the art’ systems.
Better use of data, application of robotics and Artificial Intelligence offers the potential of ‘bridging the skills gap’. However, this latest state of the art technology (which is in use in water) still relies on people who can understand the new systems and perhaps more importantly, analyse the data that they generate. Optimal performance of operations and assets is dependent on the right use of data that is properly analysed
The key question for the sector is where will the new people come from?
Future Water Association has taken a major step in bringing the water sector to the attention of the next generation with the launch of Young Water Dragons. Already supported by over a dozen organisations, the scheme looks set to become one of the major industry initiatives, supported by hundreds if not thousands of companies from the sector.
Alastair Moseley, Director and Innovation Lead for Future Water Association commented:
“The future of water supplies and sanitation in the UK will be dependent upon new bright minds entering the sector to develop new technologies and innovations to meet the challenges of a growing population and climate change. Our Young Water Dragons competition is designed to give youngsters who are enthusiastic about science and technology the opportunity to develop new ideas, and then ‘pitch’ them to potential ‘investors’ just like the Dragon’s Den programme.
“They learn all about the science and management of water in the process as well as the myriad of exciting careers that are available in the water sector. We hope that through the excitement of our competition we will inspire young people to choose the water sector for a rewarding career, and overcome the looming skills shortage.”
Paul Horton, CEO, Future Water Association added:
‘Water is so critical to our future that is underpins our economy and way of life. We don’t just need to attract the next generation of creative thinkers, we need to show them that the water sector is a vibrant and exciting place to work, more interesting than NASA!’
Future Water is urging companies and organisations in the wider sector to come on board and lend their support to the scheme by becoming a sponsor.
For further information and to pledge your support email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit http://www.futurewaterassociation.com/young-water-dragons.