Amey recognised for commitment to solving skills shortage

Amey has been recognised for its role in a partnership to invest in skills and training through procurement at a ceremony at the Crown Plaza in Birmingham.

As a founding signatory of the Procurement Skills Accord Project, Amey was one of 28 energy and utilities companies to receive an award from the Energy & Utility Skills partnership.

The Procurement Skills Accord Project grew from the 2015 National Infrastructure Plan for Skills. The plan identified several challenges to ensure the delivery of the infrastructure pipeline to 2020 and beyond. One was to incentivise skills investment through procurement and engagement approaches and to retrain and up-skill the workforce to meet future demands. In response to this, Amey piloted the Acord in October 2016 along with National Grid, SSE, Thames Water and UK Power Networks.

The Accord has five commitments that require signatory companies to ensure that responsible procurement practices are used to drive investment in skills through the delivery of contracts. Since 2016, the number of signatories from lead and supply chain companies has grown to 38.

The awards night also coincided with the release of the Procurement Skills Accord’s annual report. The report displayed promising results, with nearly 74% of eligible companies achieving the commitments.

Speaking about Amey’s involvement, Managing Director of Utilities, David Mcloughlin, said:

“The Accord helps us to increase our focus and improve our approach to investing in people and skills for the future. It brings an extra dimension as it connects us to our clients and suppliers in developing the workforce resilience essential to the utilities industry.”

Kate Davies, Chief Operating Officer at Energy & Utility Skills, said:

“The Procurement Skills Accord was built by the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership and it is exciting to see such progress after just one year. The Procurement Skills Accord’s commitments are robust and are part of ensuring our sector proactively tackles its skills challenges through investment in its current workforce through the supply chain as well as creating new opportunities. By focusing on formal training programmes targeted in areas of current and future skills shortages, participating companies are ensuring appropriate impact in the right place. The results achieved and the awards are well deserved.”

Nick Ellins, Chief Executive at Energy & Utility Skills, added:

“The results of the Procurement Skills Accord shows how structured collaboration between the asset holders and their supply chain partners increases investment in training and builds valuable resilience in to the sector’s workforce.

“We can all talk about achieving resilient UK infrastructure, but unless you have the people and capabilities to make it resilient, it’s an arbitrary point. The workforce in the utility sector, is delivering the largest single contribution to the £0.5 trillion National Infrastructure Plan and daily essential services of key strategic value to the UK economy.”