Interview: Trudy Onland and Vinnie Veth

To meet the rising demand for electricity, the size of our electricity grids will have to get 2.5 times bigger in the coming years. That is a huge challenge, because we will need to build much more and much faster in order to achieve this. There is a real need to attract more people. However, grid managers are facing a shortage of (technical) staff, just like the rest of society. Therefore, through Stedin’s in-house training school we are increasingly training new fitters who have been recruited from entirely different occupations. COO Trudy Onland talks about the success of this lateral-entry route with former cook Vinnie Veth, who trained as a low-voltage fitter.

“As a cook I worked long hours, and the salary was not great either. I was also looking for a new challenge, and that is when I came across Stedin”, says Vinnie. He was not entirely unfamiliar with Stedin, as his father Mattin was already working at Stedin as a team leader in Maintenance.

Trudy: “That great! And you have since moved to a different post, haven’t you?”

Vinnie: “I have indeed. For the first two years I trained as a low-voltage fitter via the lateral-entry route. Now I work as a low-voltage operations manager. That was not exactly a planned move. I loved my job as a fitter. I was already in touch with colleagues at the Business Operations Centre and that seemed interesting too. I had a chat with them and could start more or less straight away.”

“The development opportunities everyone is always talking about are really there at Stedin,” says Vinnie. “Many companies say they offer them, but here it actually happens. If you put in a training request to your team leader, it is usually approved straight away.”

Lateral entrants know what they want

Vinnie: “Why do you think lateral entry is so important?”

Trudy: “Unfortunately, young people are not choosing a career in engineering in their droves. This is what happened to my nephew, for instance. He wanted to be a fitter, went to an open day and saw a canteen full of interested people. But in the end, he was the only one on the course. It turned out they had all chosen to do the sports programme instead.”

“And yet this is a great profession in which you can continue to develop, as you yourself point out. If people do not initially choose a career in engineering, it is great if they do so as second, third or fourth option. Colleagues who join us via the lateral-entry route – and there have been over 350 of them since 2015 – often already know what they do and do not want. I think they are in a better position than school leavers to make a well-informed choice. This is what makes the lateral-entry route so useful and important.”

A record number of new colleagues

2023 was an eventful year for Stedin on many fronts, also in terms of recruiting new staff. Stedin welcomed a total of 562 new colleagues. An all-time record. And this was necessary, because we have more work to do than ever before.

Trudy: “With high energy prices and people switching to heat pumps, solar panels and electric cars in large numbers, the electricity grid is suddenly under great pressure. Our processes are not yet adjusted to this huge surge in demand. While until recently this process ran smoothly and was a small part of our overall work, it has become one of our greatest challenges.”

“I recognise that,” says Vinnie. “There are many developments, which means that we are sometimes forced to play catch-up. For example, we can get much more out of smart meter data than we are doing at present. We are working hard to optimise that.”

“You notice that we have to do more than simply work harder,” Trudy observes. “The processes should become more robust. We used 2023 to explore how we can do that. Where low voltage is concerned, for example, this means reinforcing the grid one district at a time, so that we can do more work over a shorter period.”

“Although this growth is not always reflected in our results just yet, much work has been done behind the scenes to facilitate acceleration in the coming years,” Trudy continues. “This made it quite a tough year. We found out that there were further steps to take, but we took the bull by the horns and plunged right in. With full transparency and with each other. Precisely because we were not afraid to take steps, that sense of unease has now gone.”

Vinnie: “Yes, you can see that everywhere: throughout Stedin. That everyone has stepped up a gear.”

‘We are in a better position than ever before’

Trudy: “It makes 2023 a special year. I am really looking forward to the year ahead. We are not yet where we want to be, but I think we are in a better position than ever before. I look forward to the effects of this in the coming years.”

“I totally agree,” says Vinnie. “I hope that we will continue to develop and move the energy transition forward. That more things can be predicted, for example on the low-voltage grid. This is because problems on the medium-voltage grid have a knock-on effect on the low-voltage grid. We should try to spot that early and prevent it.”

Trudy: “It is great to hear you talk so passionately about your work at Stedin.”

Vinnie: “Yes, lateral entry changed my life for the better. More than I expected, also in my daily life. I have become much better at DIY. This meant that I could do a lot of work myself when I moved house: rewiring, putting in a new toilet, tiling ... Having learned how to work in a clean, tidy and safe manner makes you more confident and self-assured.”

And that is not all. The young father now has more time for his family, earns a better salary and has challenging work. “I can see myself working at Stedin for many years to come. So I would say: when in doubt, don’t do it. Don’t hesitate to join Stedin and follow the lateral-entry route.”