SELECT, the Scottish electrical trade body, and Luceco Group have launched Powering Potential, an initiative giving three SELECT member firms £6,000 each, £18,000 in total, towards the cost of employing a first-year electrical installation apprentice. The grants help small employers cover wages while apprentices spend long periods at college in their first year.

The inaugural recipients are V C Electrical in Gullane for the East, T Walsh Contracts Ltd in Ayr for the West and A B Electrical Scotland Ltd in Aboyne for the North. Funding was presented at The Balmoral in Edinburgh by SELECT president Darren Crockett and Ian Hunter, UK trade sales director at Luceco Group, who also donated electrical equipment to the apprentices.

Developed with support from the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT), the programme chose small and medium-sized firms and longstanding SELECT members with a proven record of recruiting and developing apprentices. Apprentices will also be invited to Luceco’s Telford headquarters to see manufacturing, product development and the wider electrical supply chain.

Luceco plc, headquartered in Telford and listed on the London Stock Exchange (LUCE), reported first-half 2026 revenue of £142.6 million and adjusted operating profit of £15.8 million. SELECT, which describes itself as Scotland’s largest construction trade association, represents electrical contractors.

The structural driver is the cost pressure on small employers in the first year of an apprenticeship, when trainees spend significant periods at college, with SELECT saying employers tell it rising costs are making apprentices harder to recruit.

Sharon Miller, managing director of SELECT, said the partnership is a practical example of industry coming together to find solutions.

Ian Hunter said Luceco is supporting the initiative as a way of “giving something back to the contractors who support our business every day.”

Tony Walsh, owner of T Walsh Contracts Ltd, said first-year apprentices spend 17 weeks in college, which “can make it unaffordable for some small businesses.”

V C Electrical owner Val Chisholm said the support “feels like a reward for the years of hard work, commitment and dedication.”

For the sector, Powering Potential confirms that trade bodies and manufacturers are creating targeted employer grants to ease first-year apprenticeship costs in the electrical trades.

Source: fenews.co.uk / investegate.co.uk