Launched at the House of Lords on Tuesday, October 11, 2016, at an event hosted by Lord Aberdare, the Skills Accord is a new way of advancing the energy and utilities sector and their supply chain to generate the workforce capacity and capability that is needed.

Amey, National Grid, SSE, Thames Water, and UK Power Networks, along with 22 key supply chain firms have pledged their commitment to a new and innovative Skills Accord.

The Skills Accord is one element of the sector’s new approach to strategic workforce renewal and will make sure that market contractors stay competitive while embedding relevant skills development in their organisations through their commitment to an annual contribution to the sector’s overall training target of 5%, and encouraging the same through their supply chain.

Chair of the Energy & Utility Skills Group, Jan Ward, congratulated the 27 firms who pledged their commitment to a sustained investment in skills: “This Skills Accord is one of the key priorities of the new sector partnership now underway, and I applaud these companies for testing the art of the possible and by collaborating with each other to recruit and train skilled workers, increase mobility and efficiency, widen the available talent pool and consequently bring about strategic workforce renewal.”

During the event, Senior Advisor at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (part of the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury), Keith Waller, commended members of the Energy & Utility Skills Group: “One of the key challenges stated in the 2015 National Infrastructure Plan for Skills was how to incentivise skills investment through procurement. This requires innovative approaches to encourage the retraining and up-skilling of the workforce to meet future skills demands.

“The fact that employers within the energy and utilities sector were already working towards this remit in conjunction with Energy & Utility Skills through the management of the Procurement Skills Accord Project is very much welcomed.”