News

Severn Trent is opening its doors to its state-of-the-art Academy in Coventry to provide free employability sessions to its communities to support with more people getting back into work following the pandemic.  

To coincide with this year's National Family Learning Festival (16th Oct – 31st Oct) the company is launching its employability offering, and now anyone can have free access digitally or in person, to valuable skills and training to support with those needing to find work, or who’s circumstances may have changed.  

The Academy, that was opened earlier this year by Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP and is part of the company’s wider £10m investment into learning and development, has committed to provide 100,000 hours of free employability training for communities, and is encouraging anyone interested to sign up and take advantage of the free, easily accessible learning available.  

Sarah Harris, Head of the Academy at Severn Trent said: “We announced earlier this year that we’re ambitiously going to provide our customers and communities with 100,000 hours of free skills and training, and I'm so excited that today we’re officially able to launch so people can sign up and get involved and take advantage of what we have on offer!

“It’s so important to us, that we’re doing everything we can to support our communities, and by making the most of our own trainers, and facilities, we’re able to provide a full range of really valuable sessions that will help make a difference to people’s lives, at whatever stage they are in life when it comes to building self-confidence, finding work, or developing on skills to help with finding jobs.”  

Severn Trent have created a range of bespoke courses available to people across its region to take part in, ranging from cv skills, presenting skills, and career planning workshops.

The company’s own training team will be delivering the sessions either in person at it’s Academy in Coventry, or virtually and in our communities. 

“We’ve took the expertise we have already and developed a set of courses that aim to support people  as they look to develop and learn skills that will support them with finding work,” Sarah added. “After the last year and a half, it’s clear that many people have found themselves in uncertain situations with jobs and changes of circumstances. This is just one of the way’s we’re supporting our customers and communities and helping those who may need an extra bit of support following the pandemic and we really hope that plenty of people get involved and make use of this free service, as we know it will make a massive difference.”

Severn Trent will be running the sessions to make them accessible as possible with flexible timings.

The company’s program offers training for a variety of skills and levels, meaning anyone has the opportunity the get involved and make use of the 100,000 hours on offer.

As well as supporting communities, the brand new Academy will also be used by Severn Trent’s own people, providing a variety of training, using traditional and experimental learning, to cater for the needs of its 7,000 work force. Virtual reality, technical training, operational rigs and traditional classroom based learning – are some of the ways Severn Trent has invested in its Academy, to make sure its people are skilled to deliver the best service for its eight million customers.