Skills & Training Award
Celebrating best in class employers that are adopting novel ways of training and developing their staff and can show clear plans to futureproof their workforce. This award celebrates the companies that are finding new ways to plug the skills gap and strengthen their offer to current employees.
Skills and Training Award
Celebrating best in class employers that are adopting novel ways of training and developing their staff and can show clear plans to futureproof their workforce. This award celebrates the companies that are finding new ways to plug the skills gap and strengthen their offer to current employees.
British Gas
British Gas Energy’s ‘Energy Academy’ redefines colleague development within Centrica: an innovative, colleague-led learning ecosystem blending AI-powered simulations, self-led digital learning, and creative content such as podcasts to build an engaged, resilient workforce.
With a 16.5% NPS uplift, and a 28% projected reduction in attrition, the Energy Academy proves that you can empower employees to deliver exceptional service through continuous learning, whilst also prioritising colleague growth within the organisation through formal development programmes.
Embedded into daily operations and co-created across departments, it’s a dynamic solution to the skills gap, supporting performance, compliance, and career growth at every level.
E.ON Next and BFY Group
At E.ON Next, we wanted to be ‘best-in-class’ for customer outcomes: but you can only lead from the front. Training/capability inconsistencies had left our leaders on the back foot, so we launched a bespoke, £2m leadership-development programme – ‘Limitless’ – covering 385 leaders (leading 4,800 colleagues). Designed to close leaders’ skills gaps, embed a long-term high-performance culture, and meet evolving consumer needs, Limitless combines immersive, on-the-job learning and capability/customer KPI-tracking, leading to radically improved customer experience (customer happiness scores surged to >80%), employee engagement that outstrips sector norms, and ultimately good customer outcomes (including record debt resolution and reduction).
Firstsource and E.ON Next
At Firstsource, training isn’t about ticking boxes on learning modules. It’s about unlocking potential.
Over the past year, we’re working on futureproofing the utilities workforce by plugging critical skills gaps through AI-powered innovation. From AI Coach to interactive tools like Kraken Interactive, gamified learning, and scenario-based workshops on billing, complaints, and ability to pay.
The impact? Advisors gained confidence. Teams hit sales and compliance goals. Engagement rose. People feel seen, valued, and ready for more.
Our approach is simple: AI shouldn’t replace human empathy. It should amplify it to create confident, AI-enabled professionals who deliver extraordinary customer experiences.
National Energy System Operator
In the past year, NESO’s Early Careers team has launched pioneering programmes to address skills gaps and champion diversity in energy careers. We supported 98 learners through new apprenticeships, internships, and graduate schemes—onboarding 61 new learners and transitioning 37 from NationalGrid.
Our initiatives prioritise accessible recruitment, social mobility, and representation for neurodiverse individuals.
Our Graduate & Undergraduate Programme earned a Target Jobs Graduate Employer of the Year nomination, while our EmployAbility Supported Internship won an Inclusive Leadership award from the Royal Academy of Engineering, reflecting our commitment to innovative, inclusive development and the creation of equitable pathways into energy
Octopus Energy
Octopus Energy is scaling a future-fit, low-carbon workforce by tackling the critical heat pump installer skills gap head-on. Through significant investment in 2024, we opened a new 91,923 sq ft Training Academy in Sheffield and delivered innovative, fully-funded MCS-accredited courses, training over 2,000 OctoInstallers, achieving 90% satisfaction, and creating 1800+ jobs which didn’t exist before. Meanwhile, our pioneering paid apprenticeship scheme, the first of its kind from a UK energy supplier, attracts diverse talent, offering competitive salaries and equity - supporting new pathways for next generation talent. All make us a deserving winner of the Skills and Training Award.
SGN
Over the past year, we have transformed our training offer with cutting-edge facilities, upskilled trainers and embedded inclusive learning design.
Our new flagship centre provides immersive, real-world simulations – from high-pressure control rigs to a two-storey “safety street”, while the facility boasts six technology-enabled classrooms.
All trainers are now multi-skilled, while role-based learning ensures every frontline operative receives tailored development. We’ve strengthened quality through rigorous vendor management and new technical specialists, and partnered with RiskTec to streamline inspections, focusing on safety-critical tasks.
With redesigned and neurodiverse-accessible training materials shaped by 100 stakeholders, we are delivering innovation and industry-leading training excellence.
UK Power Networks
UK Power Networks is transforming lives and powering the future with an inspiring £15million investment in the Craft Attendant programme, a gateway for those long excluded from the energy sector’s skilled roles. This fast-tracks people without formal trade qualifications into rewarding, lifelong careers, blending hands-on experience with leading-edge training. Welcoming 260 new trainees from diverse backgrounds across the East and South East, this unique initiative is closing the industry skills gap and nurturing a vibrant, resilient workforce enabling the journey to net zero. This is more than a programme; it’s an open door to opportunity, inclusion, and a brighter future.