ScottishPower adds 300 jobs, seeks new talent with £6.5m fund
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Energy firm Scottish Power is investing £5bn in the Central and Southern Scotland electricity network in the next 10 years, and creating 300 new roles in the coming years.
The roles include full-time system design roles, high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) development jobs, and transmission and distribution engineers.
They also include around 50 new apprenticeships, with the graduate scheme at the company also looking to take in “at least” 50 new starters by 2013, a statement from the firm says, adding it wants “to help encourage the next generation of engineers into the industry”.
Scottish Power also cites figures from the National Skills Academy for Power (NSAP) that show that four out of five energy industry employees are set to retire over the next 15 years.
As such, the firm is “investing £6.5m in grassroots skills development between 2011 and 2013”, which includes pre-apprentice schools programmes, the establishment of links between colleges and universities, and the sponsorship of specialist post-graduate scholarships.
Ignacio Galán, chairman of Scottish Power, says: “Our aim is to ensure that school children and those at college and university see this kind of skilled employment as an attractive option.”
Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, adds: “Scotland’s energy sector has the potential to reindustrialise this country and provide work for tens of thousands of Scots in the years to come.
“We know how important it is to equip our young people with these skills, which is exactly what’s behind our commitment to deliver 25,000 modern apprenticeships, a record number, every year over the lifetime of this parliament.”
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