THREE bright sparks from around Salisbury have begun their engineering careers at Southern Electric Power Distribution’s Melksham depot after beating thousands of hopefuls to a place on the company’s apprenticeship schemes.

Lewis Targett, 16, from Downton, Dylan Hall, 19, from Salisbury and Nathan Tobin, 18, from Shaftesbury are part of a cohort of 45 trainees who will be learning how to maintain 77,000km of overhead power lines and underground cables across central southern England.

Colin Nicol, managing director of Southern Electric Power Distribution, said: “Apprenticeships are a fantastic route into a highly skilled and varied career with us, and with 95 per cent of our recruits staying with us after they’ve finished their training contract, it would seem they agree that our scheme is second to none and our company a great place to work.

“Around half of the energy sector’s workforce is set to leave or retire by 2023, so recruiting talented and committed people is absolutely vital, not just for Southern Electric Power Distribution but for the whole energy industry."

“By investing around £80,000 per recruit, we are also investing in the people who will be responsible for planning, developing and maintaining the electrical infrastructure of central southern England for future decades.”

The new recruits have been spending their first few days getting an overview of the cable jointing, fitting, electrical installation and other engineering jobs they will be doing in the future.

Over the next year, the new recruits will benefit from work experience across the business combined with either theoretical study at specialist centres of education around the south of England or a Foundation Degree in Electrical Power Engineering at Aston University.