SSE launches levelling up action plan

SSE has outlined proposals to support the levelling up agenda and reduce the opportunity gap, as part of its ambitions to kickstart the green recovery following the pandemic.

Launched today (8 October) the company’s Social mobility and opportunity for all in a time of crisis report outlines its ‘opportunity action plan’ in which it reasserts its existing programmes, as well as outlining new routes into the business for those who may have been impacted by the Covid crisis:

• Removing qualification entry requirements for apprentices, making the programme much more inclusive to those who’ve faced barriers to learning
• Working closely with organisations like Skills Development Scotland to develop guidance for people looking to transition into renewable energy
• Launching of a 12-week ‘STEM returners’ pilot to help people with STEM skills restart their career, with all returners taking part being given the opportunity to gain a full-time position with SSE

The report has been launched in partnership with the social mobility pledge, chaired by former education secretary Justine Greening. The pledge encourages organisations to put social mobility at the heart of their purpose.

Speaking to Utility Week, Greening explained how improving social mobility goes hand in hand with the UK’s efforts to meet net zero, creating a “just transition”.

She said: “We’ve had a really great response from the energy sector and utilities more widely. I think it’s partly because they can see the opportunities to not only deliver on this net zero agenda, but also the skills gap and the levelling up agenda clearly are huge chances to really get opportunities out of some of those communities and some of those people that have perhaps been further way from it in the past. We have a chance to reinvent.

“I think energy companies are going to be absolutely at the heart of that and I think what is so powerful for young people is they’ve often looked at these companies in the past and thought they are part of the problem, now they’re starting to look at them and realise that working in companies like SSE is how they can be part of the solution, that is really exciting as a change.”

For more than a decade SSE has worked with charity Barnardo’s on an employability programme for 16-24-year-olds and  created a partnership with Career Ready to help support secondary school students in areas of deprivation gain real workplace experience and mentorship.

John Stewart, SSE’s director of HR, said the company’s existing social mobility programmes alongside new initiatives and schemes will support the recruitment of people from all levels of society in a “direct and practical way”.

Stewart added that the company believed it had a “real opportunity” to help the economy recover and create long-term, sustainable jobs. He stressed that there was room for the sector to collaborate around the skills agenda.

“I think a lot of people understand that what we’re talking about here, about being inclusive, levelling up, trying to make sure that there’s opportunity for everybody for the long term and, I think, a real opportunity to kickstart the economy. While in some ways we compete with each other, I think we collaborate around the skills agenda which is a common issue and a common passion for a wide range of companies in the sector”, he said.

A number of other companies in the utilities space have signed up to the social mobility pledge. They include:

• BP
• Cadent
• Drax
• National Grid
• Northern Gas Networks
• Severn Trent
• United Utilities