A group of 17 undergraduates are joining Northumbrian Water to spend up to 12 months gaining real-world work experience.
The students will be spending time with various departments throughout the business, as well as with Northumbrian Water′s supply chain partner companies, in areas including engineering, customer service, information services and economic regulation.
This continues the companies′ work to support undergraduates. In the past two summers, Northumbrian Water′s Asset Investment team and supply partners have run successful summer programmes where separate groups of undergraduates have spent 12 weeks working with them. However, it is the first time the company has undertaken an undergraduate placements programme of this scale.
The programme is part of the company′s NWG Academy activity to attract and develop talent and raise awareness of career opportunities within the company and the wider water industry.
Northumbrian Water is a partner in the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership, a nationwide initiative aimed at helping promote sector skills and fill an estimated 221,000 roles by 2027.
Sophie Pickup, Academy Manager, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for the undergraduates to find out for real about the huge range of roles that make up the water industry and put a year of work on their CV.
"We′re really looking forward to seeing the students develop and contribute their own efforts and ideas towards our activities as a business, delivering water and wastewater services across the North East."