West Cheshire College has joined forces yet again with ScottishPower to deliver its Pre-Apprenticeship Engineering Foundation Programme.
The college teamed up with ScottishPower back in 2011 to deliver the course and is currently searching for 14 new students to join this year’s course.

The Pre-Apprenticeship training will give students the right skills, experience and qualifications to start an Advanced Apprenticeship and includes learning theory at the college and spending time at the ScottishPower training centre in Hoylake.

Since starting the scheme three years ago, the college has seen 100 per cent success rate of people completing the course and those meeting the ScottishPower selection criteria have progressed to the full Advanced Apprenticeship.

The programme was set up to address the skills shortage in the power industry as four out of five engineers will be retiring in the next 15 years and a new generation of Engineers will need to be fully trained to fill the gap.

Paul Cormack, vocational programme co-ordinator at ScottishPower, said: “Our success with the programme is down to the great working relationships we have built with both West Cheshire College tutors and their students.

“The programme provides us with a fresh source of talent and gives young people energy sector experience, with the right qualifications to progress and start their engineering career through an apprenticeship with ScottishPower.”