Three years ago, in conjunction with Bilfinger UK, the Mersey & West Cheshire Local Network developed the idea of a regional award that would recognize a company’s efforts in the recruitment and development of their engineering talent.
The award is to recognise organisations who have demonstrated a commitment to the industry of the future by investing in talent through graduate schemes, apprentice schemes and youth training schemes.
The winner in 2024 was Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN).
Setting their entry apart was its visionary approach to workforce planning. The company has ingeniously combined local recruitment with centralised training programs, transforming its workforce ahead of the curve. In doing so, SPEN fills an impressive 50% of its engineering and technical roles and a staggering 90% of its field staff positions through trainee programs.
“Our team were proud to win the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Workforce of the Future Award for their work in the Merseyside and West Cheshire area to transform our current and future workforce for Net Zero.”
In fact, they were so proud, their trophy was taken on the road to their various facilities around the country!
And, SPEN agreed to sponsor the next trophy!
During discussions, about the next one, we decided that it would be good to have this as a perpetual trophy that would be returned each year and winners names added.
SPEN also agreed to set this as a design project for some of their young trainees.
The brief we developed was for the trophy to represent as many engineering disciplines as possible in order to reflect the broad scope of IET membership while remembering the need to add winners names.
The resulting trophy represents engineering geologists, designers, structural, civil, mechanical, electrical and power engineers and symbolises the power of networks!
The result!
The designers!
And, the winner is:
Will your company be collecting this prestigious trophy on 6 February 2026?
The award is open to any engineering/manufacturing business in our region – and, entry is free!
Entries close at 4:00pm Friday 19 December 2025!