When Councillor Michael Hardacre, Mayor of Wolverhampton, and Councillor Chaman Lal, Lord Mayor of Birmingham, cut the ribbon on the at Elec training, AMG Building in Thomas Street on the 1st of December 2023, the promise was clear, build on the region’s need for a better qualified workforce to help achieve the West Midlands net zero targets. A bottle neck for electricians was forming, as the four pillars (Power & heat, Transport , Buildings and Industry & business) that are used as a bench mark for Net Zero are highly reliant on a skilled workforce. Here is where Elec Training stepped up, they provide a beginner friendly electrician course that allows to bridge that gap from aspiring electrician to full qualified, once fully qualified electricians can directly aid in the West Midlands drive to Net Zero, from wiring up solar panels on a business premises to installing Ev chargers at a family home, both require a fully qualified electrician.

So 18 months later what has changed at Elec Training, Emma Wheway “The idea was simple, teach small groups, practice on real boards, then send learners into the labour market.”

Within weeks, however, operations director Emma Wheway noticed something odd:

“Phones rang daily with sparkies who had paid other providers for training but were stuck, no one was helping them finish the last part, 2357 NVQ level 3 electrical portfolio.”

The NVQ is an essential part when becoming a fully qualified electrician, without it competence schemes such as NICEIC, Napit etc, will not recognise you as an electrician. This would then restrict the type of work you can do, which would add to the bottle neck that the West Midlands are already suffering from.

A quick survey of 90 callers showed 58 percent held the theory certificates yet lacked the on-site evidence needed for full qualified status. They were “paper-qualified” but could not legally sign work off. That gap became Elec Training’s pivot point.

“We adopted very quickly realising that there was a massive demand for our in house recruitment service, so we decided to open the service not just to our own learners but learners who had trained with other training providers”.

Just 18 months later Elec Training has grown from a single site start-up to a jobs engine feeding more than 120 local and national contractors, and the story explains why every modern electrician course now needs a built-in work-placement arm.

Building a recruitment team inside a training centre

By month four, the directors hired two full-time placement officers. Their job is only one thing, get every learner into paid work that matches the NVQ criteria:

• Site mapping: match learner location, transport, and previous experience to a vetted contractor list.
• Evidence coaching: show trainees how to photograph containment, test sheets, and safe-isolation steps so assessors can assess them.
• Assessor liaison: schedule on-site assessments.

“We are proud to be the one of the first if not the first to roll this out to support students from all across the UK, even if they have not trained with us, we still wanted to help”

When asked where do you see Elec Training in the next 18 months.

“It's not just about Elec Training, I’m hoping other training providers follow our example and offer full in house recruitment support not just to their own students but to all students, even the ones that trained elsewhere.”

How do you see the Net Zero targets in the West Midlands?

“If you had asked me six months ago I would have said, yes we are on track, but I think AI has thrown a massive spanner in the works, not just for the West Midlands but for the whole of the UK and further afield. The demand for energy is higher than its ever been, and this is being fuelled by energy hungry data centres, but that’s not the only kicker, these data centres are not only energy hungry but they require a skilled workforce to run them, and yes you guessed it, what do they need to help them run, electricians!! So the bottle neck is back”.

A trend that one of the biggest companies in the world has already started addressing, Google announced its support in the form of 10 million dollars of funding, for an effort to train 100,000 electrical workers and 30,000 new apprentices in the United States. 

The road ahead

Elec Training plans to:

• Launch a night-school route for military leavers and other adults that work full time.
• Add Level 4 design units so senior sparks can step into consultancy roles.

Emma notes, “We started to fix one gap, but ended up redrawing the ladder from classroom to career. With demand for electricians forecast to rise 9 percent a year until 2030 it's an exciting time to be in the industry.”

If you want a student-first centre that teaches, mentors, and places you, Elec Training takes enquiries all year-round.