Background
Engage Consulting and Energy UK have partnered on training and knowledge-building initiatives for several years, built on a shared commitment to excellence in energy market education and to enhancing skills and knowledge in the ever-changing industry landscape. Historically, the ‘Introduction to GB Markets’ training course to public and private audiences, which has become a cornerstone for onboarding professionals new to the sector and providing specialists with the context of the broader ecosystem.
The Client: Energy UK – The UK Energy Industry’s Leading Trade Association
Energy UK is the leading trade association for the energy industry, whose members deliver nearly 80% of the UK’s power generation and over 95% of the energy supplied to UK homes and businesses. It has well over 100 members that represent most of the energy sector, excluding networks and upstream oil and gas. This includes suppliers, generators and service providers across energy, technology, transport and heat.
Client Brief
As the supplier of energy to every home and business in the country, the GB retail market remains under intense media, political and public scrutiny – expected to meet a wide range of customer obligations and regulatory requirements while also evolving quickly to develop the potential of new technologies to improve and modernise the services they provide. This has increased demand for Energy UK’s tailored, instructor-led training courses. Engage Consulting, as the delivery partner for Energy UK, supported by providing additional expert trainers to meet the demand and to support the design and delivery of bespoke versions of the introductory course for private audiences alongside the monthly public course. Whilst the expanded expert training team addressed immediate capacity issues, it also identified the need for a more advanced, structured course that could build on the foundational knowledge and address emerging challenges in the GB Retail Energy Market.
Solution
In response, Energy UK and Engage Consulting embarked on a joint collaborative initiative to design, develop and deliver a one-day, CPD-accredited course. The course would be instructor led, drawing upon the expertise and experience of Engage’s subject matter experts to provide in-depth insight into the GB retail energy sector. This involved:
- Collaborative design workshops: Subject matter experts from both organisations came together to define learning outcomes, identify key content areas and ensure ongoing alignment with industry developments.
- Curriculum development: The retail markets course was structured to include modules on related industry regulation and policy, retail supply licences and consumer protections, key factors behind energy pricing and the future of the market, including innovations such as smart meters and time of use tariffs to support the net zero transition and consumers engagement with the energy system.
- Pilot delivery and feedback loop: A pilot session was delivered to a select group of participants, comprised of Energy UK personnel, senior industry representatives and target audience profiles, with feedback used to refine content, delivery style and supporting materials.
- Scalable delivery model: The course was designed to be flexible, modular, adaptable and scalable. It is suitable for both in-person and virtual delivery, can be tailored for bespoke audiences with particular learning priorities, and combined with other Energy UK training to accommodate different organisational needs.
Impact
- Enhanced the training portfolio of Energy UK by offering more diversity and a clear progression path from introductory to more advanced learning in a dynamic sector.
- Expanded knowledge and upskilling of energy professionals achieving increased understanding of the energy industry, how to operate within it and the relevant obligations the industry has to homes and businesses in Great Britain.
- Increased interest/take up and engagement with early positive feedback highlighting the relevance and applicability of the new course content and increased requests for bespoke delivery
- Strengthened the partnership between Energy UK and Engage Consulting through deeper collaboration and shared ownership of outcomes with ongoing plans to develop opportunities further.
Next Steps
Our trainers are delivering the Retail Course’s publicly alongside the Introduction course and are regularly engaging with Energy UK to arrange and deliver bespoke sessions for private audiences. To meet increased and varied demand, we are exploring exciting opportunities with Energy UK to continue collaborative development of sector-specific modules and expand the training offering to include more flexible and bespoke delivery to fit the needs of Energy UK members, stakeholders and the wider energy industry.