EMPLOYMENT minister Esther McVey officially opened a £1.5 million training facility for engineers and apprentices.

The MP was given the tour of the United Utilities training centre, situated at the firm's waste water treatment site in Kearsley today, and met with apprentices and employees as they learn their new trade.

The company has spent more than 12 months building the state-of-the-art training centre, where 70 people a day will be taught a range of electrical, mechanical, engineering and health and safety skills.

Conservative minister Ms McVey said she was delighted to see the facility — thought to be the biggest of its kind in the country — as the government gives more support for businesses to employ apprentices, particularly in the North West.

“What we have got to do is encourage more people to pursue technical careers, in particular to science and engineering, and that it what we are doing in the North West by creating good, engineering, quality jobs”, she said.

“That is why it is really going to be a northern powerhouse, with a turbo charge from the resurgence of traditional industries here.”

Sally Cabrini, business services director at United Utilities, said they were very proud of the new facility to plug a growing skills gap as older engineers get ready to retire.

“Encouraging apprentices is not a party political issue, I think it is a big thing that is on the agenda across the UK,” she said.

“There’s no doubt for us that we need that we need to be bringing people in — our more senior staff, who are former apprentices themselves, are now giving our apprentices the training.

“We also look to go into schools and talk to teenagers before they choose their GCSEs, their A Levels and degree choices to encourage them to think about maths, science and technical subjects.”

An estimated 50 per cent of current energy and utility employers set to leave these sectors — 200,000 new recruits are needed by 2023 to plug the gap.

United Utilities currently has more than 100 technical apprentices and an annual programme that recruits 30 each year for their four year programme.