OREANDA-NEWS. 10 budding SSE engineers completed a major part of their training recently by achieving their Level 3 Gas Apprenticeship qualification.

The group, training to be gas maintenance engineers within SSE’s Home Services business,  are part of the company’s  2012 Apprenticeship intake whereby successful applicants progress through work-based training to achieve a qualification and position within the company.

Lee Head, Pipelines Manager at SSE, who attended the graduation ceremony at training provider Steve Willis in Portsmouth, said: “Our apprenticeship programme is an important part of our recruitment programme at SSE with all recruits enjoying high standards of training and education to become engineers of tomorrow. 

“The Level 3 qualification is a challenging element of our gas apprenticeship programme, requiring a lot of knowledge and specialist skill so we are delighted all our trainees have successfully passed this key stage.”

Amongst the bright sparks of the group, special recognition was given to Andrew Fisher based in the  Brighton area who picked up the ‘Recognition of Sustained Effort’ award and Gwion Jones based in Treforest who picked up the award for  ‘Gas Level 3 Apprentice of the Year 2014’.

SSE currently recruits over 100 apprentices every year. There are around 500 people going through various stages of SSE’s training and apprenticeship programme at present with an average investment of 80,000 dollars per trainee. This year 20% more trainees have been hired compared to last year.

Amongst the apprenticeship opportunities at SSE, there are roles which involve training to help maintain the 205,000 km of overhead - and underground - power lines, maintain plant and equipment at depots, power stations, wind farms or hydro projects, or carry out commercial or domestic electrical and gas work. 

The successful apprentices who passed their level 3 qualification are: Andrew Fisher, Tim Jenkins, William Smith-Young, Anthony Hopkins, Shaun Kendall, Gwion Jones, Stewart Rodden, Josh Pardue, Ryan Gibbons and Michael Witchells.