Apprenticeships, internships, work experience placements, and discovery days and are just some of the ways Severn Trent encourages young people into the world of work - as the company highlights its opportunities as part of Youth Employment Week.

To go further though, and to do more to help young people across the Midlands, the company has also partnered with 17 schools across Birmingham, Derby and Coventry helping where it’s reached over 5,000 young people.

The Midlands based company, has also over last year also hosted over 560 young people through work experience placements– giving them an immersive opportunity into the world of work across different teams and departments ranging from technical, to operational to office.

Over the last year, it made significant efforts to boost training, employability, and upskilling of people within our local schools, by offering free employability training, confidence building and mock interview sessions – all aimed to help break barriers and shape a young person’s future.

Sharan Gill, Education Officer at Severn Trent said: “Young people need information about careers and the skills to join the world of work when they are older. We provide employability skills and training, mock interviews, things like CV writing, how to ace interviews, growing confidence and relationship building. We develop real partnerships with the schools and even look to bring ex-pupils back who now work with us to bring those career journeys to life and make a difference.

“We’ve worked with around 5,000 young people through schools, which is incredible if they about their futures and letting them know what’s out there and what they can achieve and connect them to employers and opportunities.”

Mr Price at St John Wall in Birmingham said: “Both pupils and staff absolutely raving about the sessions led by your team with Year 10. One member of staff said it was the best sessions they’d seen delivered on our Careers Day so thank you so much.”

 Ms Aurora Backhouse at Holy Trinity in Birmingham said: “Thank you so much for you and your teams time in conducting the mock interviews.  The feedback from pupils was extremely positive.

“I had the pleasure of observing how nervous they were when they first entered to how confident they were when the left. Your team put them all at ease and ensured they had a positive experience. I have had a read through the feedback forms this morning and they are wonderful and personalised for each student.”

Joanna Hladio spent a week with Severn Trent through work experience, she said: “I hope my time here will see me become more confident with speaking in front of people, working with others and sharing opinions. My time here already has shown the scope of HR and opportunities, which is a huge help for me as young person trying to find my future career path.

“Work experience is an incredible opportunity to see how a business works from the inside, and its culture – I fell in love with Severn Trent here in only a week! It’s a real opportunity for self-development.”

Anyone looking to explore what opportunities are available and support in kickstarting their career, can look at severntrent.com/careers.