OUR HISTORY

CABWI was founded in 1991 by the Water Services Association and Water Company Association (which became Water UK in 1998) to service the development and accreditation of vocational qualifications required by the 1991 Street Works Act. It has continued to evolve to meet the changing needs of the utilities sector and today the bulk of CABWI’s business lies in awarding Street Works qualifications.  CABWI is now the only body awarding water NVQ’s.

CABWI became a charity in 2013, and while several donations were made in the early years as spare funds became available. It wasn’t until 2017-2019 that business had grown to a size that enabled CABWI to extend its charitable works.

By 2020, it was clear that CABWI needed to develop more formal structures to manage its donations and establish new grant-giving processes.  A newly designed, easy to use app for Street Works qualifications and re-assessment launched in 2021 and resulted in increased revenue, enabling the charity to allocate more funds to support key causes.  CABWI appointed an external consultant to launch its first new funding round in 2022.

Recognising the importance of maintaining a focus on the assessment and awarding qualifications aspects of the business, the decision was taken to separate the functions.  An operating company, CABWI Trading Limited, wholly owned by CABWI was incorporated in 2022.  CABWI Trading Ltd now generates profits which are wholly transferred to the CABWI charity for distribution to charitable causes through the grant giving process (https//www.cabwi.co.uk).

By 2023, the level of funding donated by the charity had increased significantly. CABWI responded by increasing the size of its Trustee board and created a new in-house grants administrator post to manage distribution of the charity’s funds. The grants administrator is supported by a Trustee Board and Charitable Donations Subcommittee. 

CABWI continues to grow and currently distributes approximately £1m annually to charities throughout the UK.