13 young people from Aberdeen City and Shire, Angus and Dundee celebrated completing The Prince’s Trust’s 4th Get into Oil and Gas programme run in conjunction with Elevator (previously known as Enterprise North East Trust - please click here to read more), and Tullos Training in the Townhouse on the 27th November.

The celebration marks the culmination of 6 weeks training, where the young people get a taster of various engineering disciplines including bench fitting, electronics, welding, and machining and turning. After gaining some hands on experience they then have the opportunity to apply for employment with their host company.  Participating businesses for the Winter 2014 programme were Aircon Scotland, Caledonian Petroleum Services, Norco, SengS Subsea, Enovate, and Richard Irvin.

The young people go through a rigorous selection process, where they have a one to one interview, and if successful, are progressed to a taster day where they meet Oil and Gas industry experts and take part in group exercises to assess their team work and communication skills.  If successful there, they attend a second taster day at Tullos Training Centre at Altens, where their hands on skills are tested by engaging in exercises like hand cutting shapes from metal, and making electronic circuits.  The successful 13 from that taster are then progressed onto the programme. 

While on the programme, as well as developing their hands on skills, the trainees undertake mock interviews with Thorpe Molloy, who give detailed feedback to help the young people understand areas where they excel, and the areas they need to work on.  The trainees find this input really valuable, and it goes a long way to helping them gain an understanding of the world of work.

Programme executive Lynne Martin said "These programmes not only make a very real impact on the lives of the young people we work with, but also on the participating businesses.  By participating in Get into Oil and Gas, businesses can access talented 16-25 year olds who might otherwise be overlooked during a more traditional recruitment process, and that can only be of benefit to businesses and the communities in which they operate".

Michael Walis, who spent his placement at SengS Subsea, said “I enjoyed the placement- I have also learned some valuable life skills. I have met some really good people, and I am grateful for such a huge opportunity".

Participation from businesses at every stage in the process is key to the programmes’ success, and we’d like to thank the representatives from Energy Futures North East, DrilQuip and Blaze Manufacturing for their participation at taster days.

The Prince’s Trust and Elevator will be running more Get into programmes early 2015, with another Oil and Gas programme in the Spring.

If you’d like to know more about the programmes, or think your business might be interested in participating in upcoming Oil and Gas programmes, get in touch with Lynne Martin on 07787 518392 or email lynne.martin@enetrust.com.

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