OREANDA-NEWS. One of the many things that I’m proud of at SSE is the opportunities we provide for young people through our apprenticeship scheme. I’m also proud of the retention rate of our trainees with over 90% of them remaining in long term sustainable jobs here.

Since 2007 SSE has hired 800 apprentices which represents an overall investment of 64m, as we spend 80,000 per trainee.

But more powerful than the headline numbers are the individual apprentices and trainees themselves. So it was with particular delight that we welcomed Energy and Business Minister Matthew Hancock to the Perth Training Centre.

There was no real need to stage anything for a ministerial visit. What Mr Hancock found was a busy training area with apprentices up and down power lines, or in the workshops making cables safe. 

The only problem was that with barely half an hour of the minister’s busy diary free we couldn’t show him other things like the smart meter training. 

Mr Hancock seemed impressed with what he saw. First Laura Sneddon, a Technical Skills Trainee, showed the minister a cable identification exercise that we carry out when we are looking to repair a fault in a specially designed and safe pit we have for the purpose.

Next it was the turn of Thomas Gardner to show how we safely join cables together after we have identified a fault – and yes he did make sure the power was switched off! The final part of the tour involved seeing Arran Greig and his colleagues carry out a pole top rescue with a  ‘dummy’ from an overhead line.

Mr Hancock was effusive in his praise for the work he saw. It was remarkable, he observed, to see the theory and practice required to resolve demanding situations. He clearly felt, like I do, that apprenticeships offer the best way of unlocking the talent of tomorrow and providing long term jobs.