The Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership hosted a virtual awards ceremony today to honour the 46 energy and utilities and supply chain companies that successfully passed their audits to win the coveted Procurement Skills Accord Awards for 2019/2020.
The Procurement Skills Accord (PSA) is a national initiative from the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership to encourage increased investment in targeted training and skills across the supply chain. In its third year, the initiative is supported by 67 signatories, an increase of 20% from last year. Signatories include leading energy and utilities companies and supply chain organisations.
The awards were hosted by E.ON UK Chief Executive, Michael Lewis who is also chair of the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership and Chief Executive of Ofwat, Rachel Fletcher. Forty-six companies were presented with an award for their pioneering efforts to transform investment in technical and operational skills.
Five organisations scored an outstanding 100% from their audit: Anglian Water, Balfour Beatty, Balmoral Tanks, David Carr Durham Ltd and O’Connor Utilities. Companies needed to demonstrate excellent compliance including clear evidence to sustain a skilled workforce, embedding skills development into procurement processes and supporting supply chain in identifying and resolving skills issues.
The Accord launched in 2017 and much has been achieved during this time:
- Skills are now a key consideration within procurement
- Skills embedded into procurement processes provide real support to supply chain organisations
- Training activity has increased significantly with more apprenticeship training in the supply chain
- The number of apprenticeships in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 contractors increased by 35% and 42% respectively
- Over 90% of signatories would recommend the PSA to other organisations
Nick Ellins, Chief Executive of Energy & Utility Skills commented,
“The Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership launched this initiative to drive new levels of investment into the workforce, but also to directly meet the explicit challenge set out by HM Treasury to invest in skills through changes in procurement practice. Both challenges have been successfully met. I am delighted to see 46 organisations achieve this year’s Procurement Skills Accord Award, and the winners should be proud of their achievement as the process is deliberately rigorous and challenging. Through partnership and by influencing culture changes, the asset owners and their supply chain are making a real difference when it comes to enhancing technical and operational skills.”
Rachel Fletcher, Chief Executive, Ofwat stated,
“I welcome the commitment being demonstrated to the Procurement Skills Accord from the companies and their supply chain partners, incentivising skills investment through innovative procurement approaches. This type of collaboration can help to deliver significant social and environmental value as they go about their core role of providing services to customers and at the same time build the sector’s human capital through the choices companies make on apprenticeships, training and employment.”
Phil Davies, Chair of PSA Steering Group & Group Head of Procurement at Pennon Group said
“I am delighted to chair this sector initiative working to improve procurement practises, drive investment in skills and delivering a sustainably skilled workforce for the future. The awards are an excellent way of recognising the work of these companies in the sector, and the outputs being achieved through the work of the Accord. It’s great to see so many companies achieve the award standards today. Pennon Group sees huge value as an asset owner and signatory of the Accord, and I look forward to continuing the transformative work together with our suppliers”