The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Apprentices in limbo as training base shut
Industry: Oil companies’ cuts blamed for‘ devastating’ closure
Oil bosses said yesterday that the closure of a northeast apprentice training centre was “devastating” for the region – if not all of Scotland.
ITCA training’s demise has put 10 staff members out of work and left scores of apprentices scrambling to find places at other centres. The blame for the collapse of the Dyce-based outfit has been directed at firms that regard training budgets as an easy target in the downturn, as well as soaring business rates.
ITCA opened in the north-east in 1989 and became one of the biggest engineering apprenticeship firms in Scotland.
But managing director June Jones warned recently that the organisation was struggling.
A year ago, she said urgent action was needed to address “short-sighted” cutbacks by down turnhit firms and called for employer incentives to be introduced.
In March, Ms Jones said the company was in a “vulnerable” situation as it faced a reduction in enrolments.
Now Neil Dempsey of Anderson Anderson & Brown has been appointed liquidator after a winding up order was received.
He said ITCA had tried to lower its cost base, but that its efforts ultimately fell short.
“Following discussions between ITCA and the landlord for the company’s trading premises over the rental costs being incurred, and also the impact of the increase in non-domestic rates, the director reached the decision that the company could no longer trade on.”
Skills Development Scotland ( SDS), which delivers the Scottish Government’s Modern Apprenticeship programme, said 125 trainees had been affected by the closure. It said it was “working with administrators, employers and training providers to identify alternative training providers”.
Jim Booth, training executive at Tullos Training, said oil companies had to take their share of the blame for ITCA’s closure.
He said: “One of the first things to go is training. It seems to be an easy cut for these companies to make.
“Companies have to take some responsibility. They’re the ones who complained about an ageing workforce in the industry.” Mick Bea- vers, managing director of Control Valve Solutions ( CVS), said ITCA’s fall would be “devastating” for young people who were not suited to academic careers. Mr Beavers said CVS had been working with ITCA since 2010 and several of its trainees were undertaking courses at the centre when it closed. He said: “It’s not just the oil industry and Aberdeen that’s going to suffer, it’s also the kids leaving school who do not have great career options ahead of them.”
Gary Harris, marketing executive at Ace Winches, said organisations like ITCA were “fundamentally important” for the development of a skilled workforce that can “compete successfully in the international energy business”.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Employers are continuing to invest in their workforce and developing skills by employing modern apprentices and we will continue to work with Skills Development Scotland as it takes a range of actions to support them in this. But clearly the loss of a significant training provider in the north-east is of concern.”
“They’re the one who complained about an ageing workforce in theindustry”
The closure of a Dyce-based engineering apprentice training company is a devastating blow to the north-east, especially as so much effort has been invested in boosting apprenticeships in recent years.
This newspaper has campaigned vigorously in support of creating more apprenticeships, but difficult trading conditions appear to have caught up with ITCA Training as firms squeezed their budgets.
A year ago, its managing director warned that urgent action was needed to combat “short-sighted” apprentice cutbacks by firms after the oil downturn.
This now seems an unlucky portent of things to come later.
The futures of 125 trainees and staff are now hanging in limbo.
Another worrying feature was that steep rises in business rates
– for which the Scottish Government has been battered on a regular basis – might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. In a separate announcement over the impending closure of Aberdeen Grammar School former pupils’ club, business rates were also blamed.
Even although the Scottish Government hastily cobbled together a series of concessions, it is clear that not everyone can survive the crippling effects.
Returning to apprentices, many regard cuts as a quick-fix response which creates later problems: with an ageing workforce, investment in apprentices is really the key to future stability.
“Withan ageing workforce, investmentin apprentices isreallythe keytofuture stability”