Employability & skills

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We need the right people with the right skills to deliver life’s essential service, so our customers, communities and the environment can thrive. And we’re committed to growing local talent to help us do this.

No matter where you’re from or what you’ve done, we can open the door to opportunities and help you find your confidence and build a career you’ll love – one that makes the most of who you are.

The support we offer

Everyone deserves a fulfilling career that lets their true self shine. Here are a few ways we can help you start yours at Thames Water:

Employability courses: Develop the essential skills to succeed in your job search in our one-day and three-day employability courses, which cover resilience building, CV and interview preparation, learning about different roles and a brief introduction to Thames Water. You’ll also get a 1-2-1 with our employment and skills partners and help with your job applications.

SWAPs: If you’re claiming universal credit, jobseekers’ allowance or employment and support allowance, our sector-based workplace academy programmes (SWAPs) will help you build your confidence, improve your job prospects and enhance your CV. You’ll also get pre-employment training, work insights into our customer service or frontline operations work and a guaranteed interview with our Employability & Skills team, plus 1-2-1 support throughout the application and onboarding process.

Functional skills support: Like to improve your literacy, numeracy and digital skills? We offer lots of support through our work with local Further Education teams.

We can also support you with coaching and mentoring through some of our partners’ programmes such as Business in the Community and Drive Forward Foundation. We can work 1-2-1 with you to remove any barriers to employment and identify skills you can work on to get a career you’ll love.

To find out more about these programmes, email us at [email protected]

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Why it’s important

Helping people in our communities improve their career opportunities doesn’t just help job seekers and the local economy – we benefit, too. We know there’s a huge amount of untapped potential out there in our communities. And if we’re going to achieve all we need to do, we need to give passionate people the skills they need to help us.

There’s also a national skills shortage across our industry, and it’s crucial we get the skills we need, now and for generations to come. Part of this is tapping into diverse local talent and investing in it to fill our vacancies and address these skills shortages.

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Benefitting communities

We’re serious about tackling in-work poverty and improving under-employment. Our communities are at the heart of everything we do, and we’re determined to provide opportunities for all – promoting social mobility and increasing diversity and inclusion across our workforce. Whatever your background, we’re here to help you with the support and training you need to have a career you love and make the most of who you are.