New scheme aimed at Scots skills shortage

A new scheme aimed at attracting refugees into the construction industry to help solve the skills shortage issue has been set up in Scotland.
OTAR (Overseas Trade Assessment and Re-skilling) has been developed by Glasgow City Council (GCC), the Institute of Contemporary Scotland, contractors, colleges and unions. The aim of the scheme is to help recruit the 27,000 skilled workers that are needed in Scotland.
The scheme will allow skilled refugees entering the country to improve their English, particularly technical language, and translate their overseas qualifications into the UK equivalents.
Laing O'Rourke (Scotland) and another main contractor have already shown interest in the initiative, which will guarantee participants a job interview at the end of the training, which takes around nine weeks.
Thirty candidates from countries such as Lithuania, Turkey and Zimbabwe are expected to be processed next year. Nine are currently halfway through their training, with a further 15 expected in the next phase.
GCC's building services director William Docherty said: "The participants are all skilled crafts -people in their own countries. We'll take them up to the required level within Scottish building regulations and the legislative standards in terms of health and safety to put them into the industry."