A former Peterheid Academy student who followed in his family’s footsteps into the oil and gas sector has been named by the global skills for energy body, OPITO, as its Apprentice of the Year 2017.
Ashley Thomas is a second-year process operations apprentice at North East Scotland College in Aberdeen. He was selected to join the Oil and Gas Technical Apprentice Programme (OGTAP) last year.
Thomas grew up near the St Fergus Gas Terminal in Aberdeenshire, walking passed it on his way to school every day. As well as being inspired by the careers of his stepfather and cousin, he also has more than a dozen friends from the area who are either in the process of completing their OGTAP apprenticeships or have finished it and now working within the sector.
OGTAP is one of the biggest industry-led apprenticeship initiatives of its kind in the UK and has brought around 1,500 young people into the oil and gas industry since its inception in 1999. The programme also boasts one of the highest achievement rates in the country and has the backing of 17 oil and gas operators and major contractors.
The other three OPITO finalists, also in their second year of their OGTAP apprenticeships, were Guy Dennis from Norfolk (electrical maintenance), Aiberdonian Jonny Fennell (mechanical maintenance) and Stuart Brown (instrumentation and control maintenance) frae Edinburgh.
** Unlike the Scottish parliament, Scottish Energy News operates an inclusive linguistic policy and recognises all three of Scotland’s languages – English, Scots and Gaelic.
- ‘Cooncil’ is the Scots language word for ‘council’ and is not pejorative; ditto for Peterheid, Aiberdeen, …
- . Dictionar o’ the Scots Leid / Dictionary of the Scots Language – http://goo.gl/7xo5Bk
19 Dec 2017
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