Energy industry bodies Subsea UK and Opito are getting awards from a £2million fund aimed at attracting vital new entrants into the industry and helping people to diversify their skills.
Diver training facility the Underwater Centre at Fort William and Orkney College have also secured a share of the Energy Challenge Fund, set up to help tackle the skills shortage in the oil and gas industry.
The fund, managed on behalf of the Scottish Government by Skills Development Scotland, will support employers’ skill needs. The training is aimed at helping people to gain the qualifications necessary for working in oil and gas, including the subsea sector, plus renewables and micro-renewables.
Nine providers from across Scotland have received funding to develop tailored courses designed to fast-track people into the industry. The money will also help new graduates or school leavers to fill energy-related vacancies by providing courses in essential disciplines such as diving and offshore safety.
The oil and gas industry is experiencing shortages of skills across several key areas.
A recent survey of Subsea UK members revealed that the subsea industry in the UK needed about 10,000 people in the next 12 months to cope with current and short-term future demand. Neil Gordon, chief executive of the group which represents the industry with 250-plus members, said: “The funds will go towards further developing a subsea engineer conversion course which provides companies with the course framework, tools and resources to successfully train engineers from other sectors to become subsea engineers.”
Opito policy-affairs director Gillian Black said: “Widening the pool of talent available to the industry is essential if the recruitment difficulties identified by industry employers are to be addressed.”
Opito will use the fund to run further transformation training programmes.
For the Underwater Centre, the funding will give 42 students the opportunity to undertake courses for half the normal fee. General manager Steve Ham said the funding could not have come at a better time, adding: “At present, we are not training sufficient numbers of commercial divers to meet the UK demand. The commercial diver population is ageing and there is likely to be a dramatic skills shortage which will have to be met by commercial divers from outwith the UK.”
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