Thames Water bags business award

Thames Water has been honoured by a Dartford college for going above and beyond to support the engineers of the future.

The company was named Business Partner of the Year at The Leigh University Technical College’s (UTC) annual student award dinner for running schemes to give dozens of students a flavour of the water and wider engineering industry.

They included work experience placements at Thames Water sites, one-to-one mentoring and even assemblies covering topics such as mental health.

Thames Water was nominated by teachers at the college and the award was collected by Greg Baker, Thames Water’s education executive, at the dinner last month.

Greg said: “We have been working with the UTC since 2015 and it was great to receive this award in recognition of the work we have done over the last academic year.

“I hope we have inspired the students to consider a career in engineering and perhaps some will even go on to work for Thames Water.

“It was a very uplifting event and wonderful to hear the stories of the alumni students who were invited to speak at the event.”

The dinner also saw awards presented to students at the college for achievements in engineering, computer science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, as well as Apprentice of the Year.

In July, 13 budding engineering students at the college picked up a prestigious industry accreditation thanks to the work experience programme run by Thames Water.

The industrial cadets scheme saw the youngsters spend 30 hours at the education centre at nearby Longreach sewage treatment works, which is run by the company, over a week in July.

They took part in engineering challenges such as building models and assembling pumps, as well as being shown around the works, watching presentations from staff and visiting other Thames Water sites including Walthamstow Wetlands nature reserve.

The programme is accredited by the Engineering Development Trust and students that complete it are awarded the trust’s silver award, which is the third of five levels awarded by the organisation.

Chloe Morgan, one of the students who completed the course, said: “It was an amazing experience that taught me great life skills.

“I highly recommend it to other young people.”

Fellow student Alyssa Engmann added: “I found the experience very helpful, in a way that it allowed me to be more open minded in career paths and future choices.

“It made me understand the broadness of industry, and how a variety of my favourite subjects, such as science and engineering, can be included in jobs now and in the future.”