A Moray electrician has lit up the Press and Journal’s Apprentice 100 campaign with a pledge to add a new trainee to its team of 18.
Gateway Control Systems (GCS) currently employs three apprentices but will hire one more to support our quest to get employers to put their faith in youth.
GCS, which was set up in Buckie by married couple Alan and Sonya Warren in 1997, puts its trainees through courses run by the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT).
Mrs Warren said the electrical installation programme covered all aspects of the job and ensured trainees could work to a high standard.
She said: “If you want to be an electrician, that’s the course to do. Everyone is trained to the same standard so we know they are going to produce work to the standard we need.”
The course is offered at colleges throughout Scotland, including Aberdeen, Elgin, Fraserburgh and Inverness.
Anne Galbraith, chief executive of SECTT, said nothing compared to hands-on training when it came to building up experience.
Ms Galbraith said: “You need blocks in college and on-site to become skilled and competent.
“You need experience and maturity, which is why the programme is five years long.”
She feels strongly that many young people should take up a trade so they have a marketable skill to live off or fall back on.
“Take up a trade,” she said, adding: “It offers you such a vast array of progression. Once you are an electrician you can go on to become a project manager or a designer.”
GCS third year apprentice Joel Reid, 23, changed course to become an electrician after losing interest in a career in decorating.
Mr Reid, from Buckie, said: “I had been an apprentice painter and decorator but dropped out three years into the course because it was boring and repetitive.
“I did not enjoy it – I thought being a ‘spark’ would be more fun.”
Apply to become an apprentice electrician at Gateway Control Systems by sending a CV and cover letter to sonya.warren@moray.gov.uk.