United Utilities’ team shines the spotlight on career opportunities for Southlands School pupils

A team from United Utilities visited Southlands School in Chorley to shine the spotlight on the types of career opportunities available at the company.

Several members of the team are working on a £10m project to install two new underground storage tanks within the school grounds. When complete the tanks will provide 3.6 million litres of additional storage within the area’s wastewater network helping to reduce the need for storm overflows to operate during periods of heavy rainfall.

As well as talking to pupils about the project, the team which included project managers, a quantity surveyor, cost manager, third party co-ordinator, HR specialist and design manager shared information about their roles and the types of skills and training required.

Project manager Ben Johnson explained: “We wanted to highlight some of the many varied career opportunities available within United Utilities and the water sector.

“The students had plenty of questions for us all and it was great for us to be able to highlight the wide range of roles available within the world of infrastructure engineering.

“We also shared information about our apprenticeship scheme, and it was great to see so many pupils interested in finding out more about career opportunities.”

Assistant Head Teacher at Southlands School Gary McGurk added: “The pupils have been very interested in the project and watching it progress, so we were very pleased to welcome the team and hear first-hand from them about their roles and how they got there.

“We’re always keen to introduce our students to a wide range of training and career opportunities and it is extremely beneficial when people share their first-hand experience.”