British Energy signs £10m deal with Flagship Training

British Energy has signed a £10m deal with the Royal Navy's training provider to torpedo the UK's nuclear skills crisis.

Flagship Training will run an apprenticeship programme for the energy supplier for seven years from this September.

British Energy, which already runs eight nuclear power stations in the UK, is keen to provide some of the new plants the government wants built.

Chief executive Bill Coley last week told Personnel Today he aimed to find British workers to man these new plants.

But with a shortage of nuclear power workers, Flagship has been drafted in.

Five intakes of apprentices each year will be trained on HMS Sultan, and live on nearby HMS Collingwood in Fareham.

David Barber, British Energy head of technical training, said: "This will be the first time we have brought all of our apprentices together under one training regime, and we think the benefits for them and for the company will be tremendous.

"We are developing mature and capable employees who will come back to our power stations to make a major contribution both in the stations we operate today and hopefully in any new nuclear power stations we run in the future."