Frimley, 2013-Feb-04
The world of power stations and energy is often seen as being dominated by men but one young female graduate is already making great strides in the industry. In a first for Centrica and Siemens Energy, turbine engineer Anna Southall, 28, has just started a secondment with the team at Siemens in Lincoln, as a pilot for the firms’ newly developed exchange programme
Centrica and Siemens celebrate newly developed exchange programme.
The programme has been set up to give graduate and newly-qualified engineers the opportunity to expand their engineering knowledge, by going on secondment to each other’s companies. For Anna that means exposure to the work that goes into designing and developing gas turbines for use in the oil and gas industry, and industrial power generation. She will spend three months with Siemens in Lincoln, a world-leading gas turbine manufacturing and service business, which operates in 89 countries.
She said: “Having spent the last few years working at Centrica’s South Humber Bank power station near Grimsby it’s so rewarding to know I’m playing my part in helping to keep people’s lights on. My interest in power stations started back in school when I took part in an engineering education scheme at the former Drakelow Power Station, designed to get kids interested in engineering. I guess it must have done the trick – 10 years later and I’ve made it through Centrica’s graduate engineering programme, secured a permanent role in the business, and now with this exchange at Siemens, I’m just a few months away from applying to register as a professional engineer through the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.”
Both companies are pioneers of skills and training, and have long-established and prestigious graduate schemes. These schemes are highly sought after and gaining a place can be the opportunity of a lifetime for a graduate engineer. Moving forward, Centrica and Siemens Energy plan to establish a regular exchange of engineers to support the growth of their talent base.
John Weir, technical training manager at Centrica, said: “When it comes to high calibre graduates like Anna, we’re quite literally talking about Centrica’s engineers of the future so it’s essential that we give them the opportunities to grow as professionals. I’m sure this will be a hugely valuable experience for her and other engineers as we look to develop the programme further.”
Paul Birt, human resources director at Siemens in Lincoln said: “We are delighted to be pioneering this graduate exchange programme with Centrica. We believe that this will hugely enrich the experience of our graduates enabling them to expand their knowledge of engineering, as well as experiencing other business cultures and working with different teams. We see this as a good model for future talent management.”
Contact for journalists:
Siemens plc
Rachel Odams
Tel: 07808 824209
E-mail: rachel.odams@siemens.com
For further information and press pictures, please see: www.siemens.co.uk/press
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The Siemens Energy Sector is the world’s leading supplier of a broad spectrum of products, services and solutions for power generation in thermal power plants and using renewables, power transmission in grids and for the extraction, processing and transport of oil and gas. In fiscal 2012 (ended September 30), the Energy Sector had revenues of EUR27.5 billion and received new orders totaling approximately EUR26.9 billion and posted a profit of EUR2.2
billion. On September 30, 2012, the Energy Sector had a work force of almost 86,000. Further information is available at: www.siemens.com/energy.
Contact for journalists:
Centrica Energy
Emily Highmore-Talbot,
Tel: +44 (0)7557 614936
Email: emily.highmoretalbot@centrica.com
Centrica
Centrica is a top 30 FTSE 100 integrated energy company operating predominantly in the UK and North America. Upstream it sources, generates, processes, trades and stores energy. Downstream it supplies gas and electricity to millions of homes and businesses and offers a range of home energy solutions and low carbon products and services. For further information, go to www.centrica.com
