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The Trades have been given a boost by a surge in the number of people applying to become apprentices.
More than 30,000 people have applied for apprenticeships this year in electrical installation and plumbing alone and a further 5,000 new entries are expected before the start of the academic year in September.
In addition to school leavers, there has been a marked upsurge in the number of people taking up Adult Apprenticeships.
Earlier this year, the Government scrapped the upper age limit of 25 for apprenticeships paving the way for more mature learners to learn a trade. For the electrical industry where there will be a predicted shortfall of some 7,500 sparkies, this is good news.
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JTL, the main training provider to the building services engineering industry, is in the second year of its UpSkill programme - basically a pilot for the adult apprenticeships.
About 50 people aged over 25, who had to have been employed for at least two years as a labourer in the electrical contracting industry, are doing a two-year training programme to get NVQ level 3s.
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A spokesman from JTL said: "At 25-plus apprentices are going to be much more motivated than the typical teenager and their desire to improve their position in life and get a better career is very strong."
Application drop-outs are lower among adult apprentices although the scheme is costly as it tends to need more classroom hours - around 800 hours of "guided study" - because that is what the adult apprentices usually missed at school.
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