Talent and skills

Identifying, recruiting and developing talented people is critical to our future success. We aim to support all our employees so that they can operate to the best of their abilities by creating an environment that allows them to realise their full potential.

We continue to invest in the recruitment and development of skilled employees for the future, recruiting 157 trainees on to our apprentice, foundation engineer, graduate and student programmes in the UK in the past year. Our UK Foundation Engineering Programme, launched in early 2006, is designed to facilitate the entrance, training and progression of talented people into key engineering roles. In conjunction with Aston University and our industry sector skills council in the UK, Energy Utility Skills, we have also designed an industry specific foundation degree.

Our US university programme, used for engineering recruitment, brought in 29 new engineers in 2007. With the completion of the KeySpan acquisition, we are working with our university partners with the aim of implementing best practice and ensuring consistency across National Grid.

Through our e-futures strategy, we continue to organise actively and sponsor a number of educational initiatives in the UK. These initiatives are designed to increase the number and diversity of young people interested in engineering careers and, ultimately, to create and sustain a greater pool of skilled talent from which we can recruit. Over the last year, over 4,900 young people have participated in these initiatives. Key to this success has been the dedicated involvement of our employees.