In May 2024, the Future Water Emerging Talent Group met in person to continue to develop their work on the theme of education, which had been agreed as the group’s focus earlier this year.
The session began with updates from participants on their actions from the previous meeting, including the workstreams of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and Water Industry Education. It was great to hear about the potential to work with charities to develop a long-term strategy for recruitment in the industry which would be centred around D&I and to understand more about educational and career opportunities available through water companies for younger generations.
The remainder of the session involved initiating the development of a 10-year plan that focused on the link between education and generational knowledge share in the water industry. There was great conversation around this topic and participants posed a variety of challenging questions. There was discussion on key themes such as D&I, gender equality, digital skills, generational differences and early careers education.
The group analysed the strengths and learning opportunities for each generation and discussed how intergenerational knowledge exchange could benefit the sector and provide resilience in the future. Plans for next steps were developed and these will be expanded upon at the next meeting.
The group also discussed the vast benefits of reverse mentoring and the group is keen to incorporate this within the water industry to share knowledge and develop the future industry leaders. This topic will be taken forward to be explored further by the group.
Overall, the meeting continued to highlight the groups’ passion for improving education within the water industry. The Future Water Emerging Talent Group looks forward to developing their current plans and implementing these important initiatives to benefit the future of the sector.