IN Brief:
- Powering Potential provides three £6,000 grants to electrical contractors in eastern, western, and northern Scotland.
- The funding is intended to reduce employment costs while first year apprentices spend significant periods at college.
- SELECT’s 2026 survey found wages and insufficient employer funding were major barriers to apprentice recruitment.
SELECT and Luceco Group have launched an £18,000 funding initiative intended to reduce the cost of employing electrical installation apprentices in their first year at three small contracting businesses in Scotland.
The Powering Potential programme will provide £6,000 each to V C Electrical in Gullane, T Walsh Contracts Ltd in Ayr and A B Electrical Scotland Ltd in Aboyne. The funding was announced at the SELECT President’s Lunch in Edinburgh on 25 September and was developed with support from the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust.
The grants are aimed specifically at early apprenticeship employment costs, when learners spend significant periods attending college while remaining on the contractor’s payroll. That combination creates a particular financial pressure for smaller businesses because wages continue to be paid during weeks when the learner is not available for normal site work.
V C Electrical’s award will support Reece Michie, T Walsh Contracts will use its grant for Thomas Shirkie, and A B Electrical Scotland will support Ritchie Pirie. SELECT says the recipients were selected from small and medium sized member businesses with a record of recruiting and developing apprentices.
The initiative follows a SELECT member survey published in July which found that 52% of respondents identified high wages and insufficient employer funding as the main reason for not taking on an apprentice or adult trainee. Some 87% rated existing government support as inadequate or very poor, while 53% said greater funding would encourage them to recruit again.
Those figures put the £18,000 programme into proportion. It provides direct support to three employers rather than attempting to replace Scotland’s wider apprenticeship funding system, and SELECT has been explicit that the grants represent only a small intervention against a much larger workforce and training challenge.
Sharon Miller, Managing Director of SELECT, said: “Employers continue to tell us that rising costs are making it increasingly difficult to recruit apprentices, particularly during the first year when they spend significant periods at college, so this partnership is a practical example of industry coming together to find solutions.”
SELECT has also continued to press for changes to public apprenticeship support. The Scottish Government announced a review of Modern Apprenticeship contribution rates earlier in 2026, following industry concern over the financial viability of training and the level of employer participation.
For small electrical contractors, the initial training period presents a straightforward productivity problem. The apprentice must spend enough time in college to acquire the underpinning knowledge required for a safety-critical occupation, but the employer carries wage and related employment costs during periods when that person is not producing chargeable work on site.
Tony Walsh, owner of T Walsh Contracts Ltd, said: “The cost of taking on an apprentice is massive – in the first year they are in college for 17 weeks, which can make it unaffordable for some small businesses.”
His business will use its £6,000 grant to support 19-year-old Thomas Shirkie. T Walsh Contracts works across domestic and commercial electrical installation, including EV charging and solar photovoltaic systems, placing apprentice development alongside parts of the contracting market where electrification is increasing the technical workload.
The workforce consequence reaches beyond the three companies receiving grants. Installation of electric vehicle charging, solar generation, battery storage, low carbon heating and increasingly complex building electrical systems requires qualified people able to design, install, inspect, test and maintain equipment safely.
Training capacity can therefore become an infrastructure constraint. Manufacturers may have products available and clients may have capital to invest, but projects still depend on competent electricians and electrical contractors to turn equipment into compliant operating systems.
Luceco’s involvement adds a manufacturing and supply perspective to the programme. The three apprentices will be invited to the group’s headquarters in Telford, where SELECT says they will be able to see manufacturing, product development and the wider electrical supply chain.
Ian Hunter, UK Trade Sales Director at Luceco Group, said: “Luceco is proud to support this initiative because we recognise the pressures many employers face when investing in new talent. Supporting apprentices is an investment in the future of our industry and a way of giving something back to the contractors who support our business every day.”
The scheme begins at a modest scale, with one recipient in the East, West and North of Scotland. That allows support to reach three independent contractors without presenting the initiative as a substitute for the funding mechanisms used across the national apprenticeship system.
SELECT’s survey suggests the recruitment issue is already affecting employer behaviour. Twenty-one per cent of respondents said they did not plan to employ an apprentice during the next three years, while 67% argued that training costs should be shared equally between employers and government.
A sustained reduction in recruitment would take several years to feed through fully because an electrical apprenticeship is a multi year training route. The effect would arrive later as fewer learners reached qualification, potentially tightening labour availability just as electrification increases demand for electrical installation and maintenance skills.
Powering Potential cannot resolve that gap on its own, but it removes £6,000 of early employment cost from each of three businesses that have already chosen to train new entrants. The practical question for the wider sector is whether employer support can be expanded far enough to keep apprentice recruitment viable as wages, college attendance and other training costs continue to rise.
