Jobs boost as SSE unveils Scotland's first immersive safety training centre in Perth

Energy giant SSE is to become the first company in Scotland to introduce a new immersive safety training centre at their Perth headquarters.

The new facility will also bring 60 jobs to the city.

The company held a training day recently involving a scenario that showed how making mistakes under pressure could lead to a fatal accident.

The experience used real-life examples to highlight the importance of health and safety at work.

Marshall Stirling, an apprentice for SSE, has completed the training.

He said: “It’s very interesting, different, as opposed to sitting behind a desk, just watching or reading through a manual, safety guides and what not.

“Actually being a part of it, you get drawn right into the storyline so it makes it feel more realistic to what’s going on. It goes to show the slightest thing can change someone’s life forever.”

The scenario is designed to help staff understand how their own behaviour can impact others.

Dermot Kerrigan, director of Active Training Team, said: “People are emotional creatures, you can talk about safety all you want on an intellectual level but people need to get an emotional investment in it, because its all about going home safe, what that means to people, and what that means if that doesn’t happen.

“So what we are doing here is we are showing people, as realistically as we possibly can, that kind of scenario.”

Health and Safety Executive Scotland said there were 26 fatal injuries in the workplace in 2022-2023 and around 40,000 non fatal injuries.

SSE’s new centre in Perth hopes to train more than 7,000 people every year, with one day a week available for other businesses to book the training programme.

Liz Tessem-Cotton from SSE, said: “There is nothing more important than getting our people home safe at the end of everyday, and that’s not just the people that work for us, that’s the partners that we work with across the whole country.

“We feel that there is never a better time to invest in safety, we’re never done on safety we’re continually trying to get people home to their family and friends.”