Council agrees to be standing member of Nigg Skills Academy

Highland Councillors have welcomed the prompt establishment of the Nigg Skills Academy and have accepted an invitation to become one of three standing members of the company along with the Global Energy Group and the University of the Highlands and Islands.

They have agreed to nominate a director to sit on the company board and this will be done following the Council Elections on 3 May.

The Council is also to offer support and officer input in an advisory capacity to help realise the training and employment potential to provide the skilled workforce of the future for the engineering and energy industries.

The Skills Academy will be based at the Nigg Energy Park, and train 300 modern apprentices in engineering trades each year to support and sustain the emerging renewables industry..

The Council has actively campaigned over the last seven years for the redevelopment of the Nigg yard as a multiple industry, multi-user facility supporting the sub-sea sector of the oil and gas sectors together with the offshore wind, tidal and wave renewables industries.