British Energy sinks £10m into power station training
6 May 2008
London - British Energy has signed a £10 million contract with Flagship Training to deliver its apprentice programme from September 2008. The seven-year deal, commits Flagship to create and deliver a modern apprenticeship training programme for the UK’s largest electricity supplier, which runs eight nuclear power stations and one coal-fired power station.
From September 2008, Flagship, which is the Royal Navy’s training partner, will train each new intake of apprentices at its academy, based in HMS Sultan, Gosport, Hampshire. The residential scheme will combine technical engineering training, with a comprehensive life skills programme.
This will be the first time that we have brought all of our apprentices together under one training regime, and we think the benefits for them and for us as a company will be tremendous, according to David Barber, British Energy’s head of technical training.
The training, said Barber, will ensure that "we are developing mature and capable employees who will come back to our power stations to make a major contribution both in the stations we operate today and hopefully in any new nuclear power stations we run in the future.
“ We undertook a review of our external providers and Flagship provided the best option. Through them we can use the Royal Navy’s spare capacity. Ships’ propulsion units and generators are like self-contained power stations and submarines contain their own nuclear reactor. It provides the perfect training ground.”
Flagship’s managing director, Ron Sams, said: ‘By integrating the necessary technical training with a full life skills programme, Flagship will deliver a total training package which will help British Energy to attract and retain the high quality personnel needed in its industry. “This will ensure that their future technicians are equipped to maintain the wide range of original design equipment and emerging technology."
Under the new contract, five annual intakes of apprentices will be trained at HMS Sultan - the largest of the Royal Navy’s training establishments and focused on engineering training - and accommodated at nearby HMS Collingwood in Fareham.
"This is an excellent example of the public sector and industry working together for the benefit of the country as a whole," said Commodore Al Rymer RN, HMS Sultan. These apprentices will be taught using the Navy’s custom built engineering training facilities and I look forward to welcoming them to HMS Sultan.”
