Employees from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) attended 'Moray Jobs and You' career event at Moray College (University of the Highlands and Islands) to promote apprenticeship and trainee engineer opportunities to the local community.
SSEN joined representatives from Job Centre Plus, Moray College UHI, Skills Development Scotland and Moray Chamber of Commerce alongside a number of local employers across a range of sectors who were on hand to discuss available job opportunities.
Oscar Baird, Trainee Engineer, Sam Barnes, Apprentice Jointer/Linesman and Shona Horn, Customer Relationship Manager from SSEN's Elgin depot attended the event to talk about careers in engineering and the opportunities the network operator can provide for prospective candidates in the area.
Oscar Baird is now in his final year of his traineeship and is thoroughly enjoying the experience: "I chose a traineeship with SSEN when I came straight out of school and found the trainee programme. I was looking to go to University anyway so I thought to get paid while doing so was ideal for me."
"I'd definitely recommend an apprenticeship or traineeship with SSEN, purely because you learn technical skills and have a good technical knowledge after obtaining your degree and then you get a job at the end which is the ideal end goal."
SSEN is part of the SSE Group and since 2007, more than 1,100 apprentices and TSTs have been hired by SSE - a total training investment of £88m or £80,000 per recruit. SSE offers apprenticeship programmes lasting three to four years in nine different areas. SSE trainees help maintain over 200,000 km of SSE's power lines across its distribution and transmission networks and its power stations, wind farms and hydro projects as well as carrying out commercial or domestic electrical work. It puts trainees through foundation degrees as well as giving them work experience across the business. Graduates then join a two year rotational programme to develop their skills and experience. If you know of a friend or member of your family who may be interested in a career with SSEN, please refer them to www.ssen.co.uk/careers to learn more about our apprenticeship and training programmes.