Agricultural Assistant

Hello, we’re Severn Trent and we think water is wonderful. Oh, we’re pretty keen on people too.

24 hours a day, 365 days a year we serve 4.8 million households and business across the heart of the UK. Each cuppa drank and every toilet flushed is only possible because of the 6,500 brilliant team members working across our patch.

We welcome people from all walks of life and celebrate individuality. We know diverse minds, experiences and backgrounds help us to learn and better serve our customers and the communities where they live.

If you want to do more because you care, we’d love to talk to you. There really is something for everyone here.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Our Water Quality & Environment team have an opportunity for you to join as our new Agricultural Advisor on a fixed term contract until March 2025.

In this role, you’ll be responsible for aiding the Agricultural and Catchment Team with a new project within the Bathing Rivers Green Recovery programme.

The project will involve working with farmers and landowners to reduce faecal diseases in livestock, and the risks it poses to water quality. As such, the role would ideally suit someone with knowledge of livestock and/or animal health, either from their studies or from a farming background.

There a couple of roles available covering out Midlands region

Some of your other key accountabilities will include:

• One to one engagement with livestock farmers and other industry stakeholders, including where relevant and necessary, veterinary practices.
  
• Increasing knowledge of farmers, and those in the farming community, about the water quality challenges Severn Trent are facing with regards to faecal diseases, and to the risks they pose to water quality, animal health and productivity.
  
• Working on a dynamic and developing scheme, leading the roll out of that scheme to livestock farmers within your catchments, promoting best practice opportunities. This involves working with the farming community and providing faecal testing kits where relevant, liaising with stakeholders, working with internal procurement teams and the Environmental Comms Lead and managing/hosting training events. It could also involve obtaining the results of faecal indicator tests from those involved to feed into the programme.
  
• Providing advice to farmers to reduce or remove the faecal risks on their farm via our dedicated scheme and where relevant and required, signposting them to 3rd party grants and opportunities to support this. This could include public and privately funded opportunities, and so the candidate will be expected to research into, and stay up to date with, emerging opportunities across the sector.

• Collecting evidence that farmers have completed our programme and collating this in the required format, uploading it to our required systems so that we can track performance.

• Collating Engagement Forms for farmers that you have worked with, feeding them into our Engagement Database in the required format and timescales, ensuring we can track performance against the targets for the scheme.

• Facilitating and coordinating regular team meetings and maintaining relevant databases.

• Engaging with the wider Bathing Rivers programme, which includes regular monthly reporting to the line manager, establishing formal partnerships with stakeholders and flagging key challenges/ issues early on to the line manager.

• As a part of your role you may be asked to support other team members with activities they are undertaking elsewhere within the Severn Trent Region, such as other schemes that we offer, to support the wider team goals. There will be a need to travel to other parts of the Severn Trent Region for this, as well as meetings and training, for which expenses will be provided.

• The role is more junior than our full Agricultural Advisor role but provides an excellent opportunity to work with us and develop your skills should this role be something that interests you in future.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING TO THE ROLE

We’re seeking our new Agricultural Advisor to be comfortable facilitating and coordinating regular team meetings and maintaining relevant databases.

You will work closely with Agricultural Advisors that already operate in the Avon and Leam area and who have already got existing relationships with farmers, and so you must work well with others.

For the schemes we run there is an element of field work where you will engage with farmers in the relevant catchments, but then there is a requirement to ensure the relevant paperwork and tracking is completed in the office afterwards. As such, the role will suit someone with flexible skills, who is proactive, self-motivated and willing to push themselves without continuous supervision.

The project is new and so is always evolving. As such, we are looking for someone who is forward thinking, positive and able to work through difficulties in a constructive way to find solutions for Severn Trent and farmers in the region.

Additionally, you’ll ideally be confident speaking to farmers and understanding the challenges they face, have an agricultural background, either from a farming upbringing or your studies, familiarity with livestock farming, and have strong IT skills and presentation skills.

As this role requires travel, you must hold a full UK Driving License.

Officially you will be home-based, but you are expected to travel to your catchment as required.

The right skills and experience are important. But if you have the right character, positivity, and a caring attitude we want to talk to you too.

We welcome people from all walks of life and celebrate individuality as we know diverse minds, experiences and backgrounds help us to learn and better serve our communities. We want people who show up and get involved. Those who are ready to be part of something bigger and who want to make a difference because they care. Is that you?

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

Working here isn’t just a job. You can build a career at Severn Trent, and we’ll reward you for it too. We have a range of benefits that recognise great work, and award-winning training to help you reach your potential. And we’ll also help you play your part in looking after the environment and the communities where we live.

With that in mind, here are just some of our favourite’s perks that you’ll get being part of the Seven Trent family:

• Salary between £23,000 - £26,000
  
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays (and the ability to buy/ sell up to 5 days per year)
  
• Annual bonus scheme (of up to £1,500 per annum based on company performance)
  
• Leading pension scheme – we will double your contribution (up to 15% when you contribute 7.5%)
  
• Sharesave – the chance to buy Severn Trent Plc shares at a discounted rate
  
• Dedicated training and development with our ‘Academy’
  
• Electric vehicle scheme and retail offers
  
• Family friendly policies
  
• Two volunteering days per year

WHATS NEXT?

We can’t wait to hear from you.

Before you apply, you’ll need an updated copy of your CV and about five minutes to spare. If you’re not too sure about what you need to do, or have a question about the role before applying, please get in touch with our amazing team of recruiters at recruitment@severntrent.co.uk.

And if your curiosity has peaked and you’re wanting to find out even more, search #LifeAtSevernTrent on social media.

Ps. we’ll always let you know the outcome of your application after the closing date - so keep an eye on your phone and emails.