A NEW net zero skills centre has been launched with an offer to firms in the region to upskill their workers for free.
It is being set up by Dumfries and Galloway College with £400,920 of funding from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.
The aim is to provide: “Support for expert business advice and support programmes at the local and regional level, including support for decarbonisation, climate adaptation and circular economy advice”.
As such, the centre will fund places for local workers on ‘Roadmap to Decarbonisation’. As a result of taking the courses on offer, trades and professionals in the area will be able to offer their services to the general public in order to help make their homes more sustainable.
Dumfries and Galloway businesses can apply for funding until March 31 2025 for an array of courses, including retrofit, insulation and building environment; heat pump systems; electrical energy storage systems; and solar thermal domestic hot water systems.
Experts say the demand for new green skills and increased innovation is acute and The Construction Industry Training Board has suggested around 22,500 new roles will need to be created by 2028 to achieve the Scottish Government’s net-zero goals.
College principal Joanna Campbell hopes their centre will help with that and said: “The green agenda and tackling the climate emergency is one of the key priorities for DGC. This project, funded by the UK Government, emboldens our ethos to help design and implement green skills courses for workers in carbon‑intensive sectors.”
Bill McMillan, the college’s director of skills, added: “Dumfries and Galloway College is grateful to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund for enabling us to upskill our local businesses to take advantage of the opportunities the transition to net zero affords.
“The region’s businesses must take advantage of this offer if the economic benefit on offer is to stay in the region and not be squandered to other areas in the UK.”
