E.ON has announced a £100,000 funding package to start the recruitment of 100 young energy efficiency apprenticeships.
The funding will help to recruit workers between the ages of 16 and 24 from across England and Wales. They will be trained as external wall insulation installers, which is one of the key skills needed in order to deliver the Green Deal energy efficiency programme.
The Green Deal aims to encourage homeowners to improve their energy efficiency at home. The Green Deal will help with the costs of installing energy efficiency measures such as solid wall insulation. This will be paid back over a period of time through savings made on energy bills. It’s predicted by the Government that the scheme will create 65,000 new jobs and around 14 million homes will undergo energy efficiency measures.
The Government has already announced a £3.5m fund to train 1,000 apprentices in Green Deal skills. The idea of the project is to get new recruits training and working within as short a space of time as possible.
The new E.ON apprentices will work for E.ON’s network of suppliers which will have guaranteed contracts with E.ON for the duration of the scheme.
Director of New Business at E.ON, Do Lieper said “Green Deal is about helping people to become more energy fit at home – cutting their energy bills and carbon emissions. But it’s also about developing greater skills in our workforce and building up the capacity of smaller businesses to meet customers’ needs for the future”.
He continued, “Our investment unlocks the potential to get young people into training and work, but more than that it helps smaller business to gear up for Green Deal and invest in their staff with the confidence that contracts will be there for the longer term”.
E.ON said the initial £100,000 investment would support the initial recruitment process and training costs to help the scheme get going. Apprentices will earn a working wage during their 12 months at college and then they will train on the job.
E.ON has already launched an Apprentice Energy assessors scheme and has taken on 75 unemployed people from five cities.
