Robin Phillips is the contracts and compliance manager for Severn Trent Services, and wanted to share his experience in advising students at Coventry University.
Earlier this month it was a pleasure to deliver two lectures to business students at Coventry University. The sessions provide an introduction to industry and an overview of how businesses like Severn Trent Services (STS) manage a diverse supply chain to deliver water and wastewater services to customers across the UK.
In between the lectures, students are provided with a practical problem to solve which encourages them to think about the balance of customer, quality and cost issues that are important to STS and our customers. Students must work together in groups and then present their findings.
This year, I was joined by Connal Coffey (Contracts Technician) and Tom Webb (Supplier Contracts Apprentice). Students were keen to ask Connal and Tom questions about their roles and their experiences which helped to provide valuable insight into what it’s like to work in procurement and supply chain management. This is the fifth year of running these lectures and it’s great to find that students always ask me lots of new and interesting questions. This year’s questions focused on how we can all manage the impacts of climate change (water resources and flooding) and ensure that water services are sustainable for the long term, all of which is vital to Severn Trent in taking care of Water – One of Life’s Essentials.
