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Skills Dialogues constitute a series of consultations with all major industrial and business sectors in the UK, generating high quality authoritative skills assessments for each of these broad sectors. Their purpose is to improve the quality of information available on skills at sector level and to provide an effective means for national training organisations (NTOs) and employers to contribute to the planning and implementation of education and training provision in their sector. This report is the result of the Gas, Water and Electricity Skills Dialogue (including telecom cable-laying) and provides an assessment of trends in employment and skill needs and associated issues in this sector. Skill needs are being driven by broad factors such as increased competitiveness, globalisation and technological innovation, as well as regulatory requirements that create cycles of skills needs and specific demand requirements of labour. As a result of privatisation, the utilities share some skill requirements in the area of network construction, i.e. work that is contracted out to companies who work across the utilities. The report provides a sector overview and examines the demand for, and supply of, skills and recruitment and skills challenges. The report concludes that substantial work is required to build partnerships that will be able to support the supply of appropriately skilled labour to meet skills needs in the medium to long term and, for the gas industry, in the short term. It will be vital to develop skilled labour to take over from the ageing workforce characterising these industries.