More than 3,500 young people have applied for one of the oil and gas industry’s top training schemes.
Energy skills body Opito said yesterday the high number of applicants for its Modern Apprenticeship programme underlined the interest among young people keen to work in the oil and gas sector.
The announcement comes as Scottish Apprenticeship Week, an annual series of events aiming to raise the profile of training schemes, drew to a close today.
Opito said that, after £120million of industry investment in its Modern Apprenticeship scheme, it had brought nearly 1,400 young people into the energy sector in the past decade.
The Opito programme has only 100 places a year, but UK managing director Larraine Boorman said many of the unsuccessful applicants would be directed to other schemes.
She said: “The significant volume of applications we received for this year’s intake demonstrates the huge interest there is in pursuing a technical career in the oil and gas industry.
“Apprenticeship schemes are an excellent example of how an industry can . . . tackle its skills issues. Due to the high volume and standard of these applications, we are looking at expanding the routes into our industry so graduates with the right mix of skills can still achieve exciting and rewarding career opportunities.
“We are running a raft of initiatives that are absolutely geared to attracting the future oil and gas workforce. It is crucial that we continue to work with schools and encourage the uptake of science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, so school leavers are equipped with the basic skills required to enter the industry.”
One of the apprentices on Opito’s programme is 22-year-old Scott Stage, who is originally from Aberdeen but is studying instrument and control at Edinburgh College.
He said: “The scheme is hugely popular and I applied several times before being lucky enough to get a place, but it has absolutely been worth persevering.
“My ultimate career aim is to be an offshore installation manager and while it might be quite a few years off, this has absolutely been the best start I could have hoped for in my career.”
The Industrial Training Centre Aberdeen (Itca) said it had also been involved in this year’s Scottish Apprenticeship Week.
The organisation has helped around 50 people work towards an apprenticeship in the past year.
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