Learning and skills development for Severn Trent and our communities With a syllabus launched in July 2020 and a purpose-built facility opened in Coventry in February 2021, the Academy provides training across all aspects of Severn Trent’s business. The aim is to have the most skilled workforce in the industry, and the Academy provides the structure for that. It offers learning opportunities for everyone, whatever stage of their career, as well as the potential for people to reskill as jobs change over time, or as they seek a change of direction in their career. We’ve invested £10 million to give our Academy a genuine focus on experiential learning. Teams get to practise a range of skills in simulations of the real world, with operations rigs covering activities such as leakage, water pressure and valving. This gives learners the opportunity to test the theory they learn in the classroom, make and correct mistakes, and build the confidence to apply what they’ve learnt on our water network. As well as operations and engineering skills, the syllabus includes the whole range of business skills, from customer service to leadership and management. We’ve invested heavily in virtual reality, and this is proving especially valuable in training for high-risk scenarios where health and safety factors would limit real-world, physical methods – for example, where heavy lifting or handling chemicals are involved. We’ve even developed an immersive learning experience for personal effectiveness skills to coach our managers how to handle tricky conversations. Our flexible approach has helped us continue training our people throughout the restrictions and other challenges of the pandemic. This has been especially vital for our many key workers – and wherever course content demands physical methods, we’ve kept everyone safe by ensuring our training environments are Covid-secure, and have reduced the numbers at training sessions. So, despite the difficult conditions affecting our Academy’s first few months, we’ve succeeded in establishing a facility fully equipped to provide all the training we need – from operational apprenticeships to professional development. Improving skills and creating careers through graduates and apprenticeships Despite Covid, we have continued with our apprentice and graduate development programmes throughout the year. We currently have 152 apprentices and graduates in the business, at different stages of their course, and we welcomed an additional 69 in August and September 2020. This January, we announced and started the application process for this year’s intake, with 86 new apprentice or graduate roles available for a variety of occupations and levels. Apprenticeship qualifications range from level 2 (GCSE equivalent) to level 5 (foundation degree equivalent) and now span a broad variety of roles, including maintenance technicians, farm-liaison officers, HR consultants and quantity surveyors. At a time when young people across our communities need access to meaningful, well-paid jobs, our new-talent programmes are a great way to bring diverse skills into our organisation. Of those currently on our programmes, 20% are female and 15% are from an ethnic minority. Of our 2020 intake, 42% joined us from social mobility ‘coldspots’, a number that increases to 49% for our apprentice intake. Reskilling and adapting to new roles As part of a planning and scheduling change programme, and in consultation with our trade unions, we agreed that for anybody affected, we would guarantee to find them a job somewhere in the Company. We have found opportunities for 119 people, reskilling them in the process. It has even proven to be a good model for future change programmes, where we may be able to offer our people not only second careers and job security, but also progression in new directions. people reskilled, as part of our planning and scheduling change programme apprentices and graduates in the business our new academy our new academy Building a better business Future-proofing our skills and knowledge 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0