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Empowering The Next Generation of Infrastructure Talent

About Us

Highlands & Islands Skills (HI-Skills) is a Community Interest Company with a bold vision: to create a nationally significant Centre of Excellence for Skills, Safety and Innovation in Inverness.

This Centre will give our region and our industry the skilled workforce needed to deliver more than 250 transformational infrastructure projects worth over £100 billion.

What We Will Offer

Apprenticeships

  • Plant Operator
  • Crane Operator
  • Groundworks
  • Civil Engineering
  • Roadbuilding
  • Steel Fixing
  • Scaffolding
  • …and more

Specialist Courses

  • Wind Turbine Technician
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Pipefitting & Welding
  • Fabrication & Welding
  • General Construction Operative
  • Lineperson
  • Tunnelling
  • …and more

Short Courses

  • Plant
  • Health & Safety
  • Access
  • Wind
  • Utilities
  • …and more

Safety First, Innovation Always

At the heart of the Centre will be a state of the art immersive safety centre, setting the benchmark for safety leadership across the Highlands and Islands.

Alongside this, an Innovation Hub will support sector-relevant technologies and ideas, particularly those developed locally, helping increase sector productivity and drive regional economic growth.

Pathways to Employment

We’re making a clear commitment:

  • Any self-funded learner not already employed in the industry will leave with a pathway into meaningful full-time work.
  • On completion, learners will be matched with live job opportunities across the Highlands, Islands, and beyond.
  • We will provide tailored support including CV preparation, interview coaching, and compliance readiness.

Employers: Partner with Us

If you are an employer in the Highlands & Islands facing the impact of the skills shortage, or you want to upskill your workforce to capture new opportunities we want to work with you.
Register your interest below and help us in shaping the future workforce of our region.

Contact Us

News

Results day: whatever the envelope says, the Highlands and Islands needs you.

“Whether today’s results opened the door you were hoping for or not, the Highlands and Islands are on the edge of something extraordinary,” said Mackintosh. “The A9 dualling, offshore wind, energy transmission, pumped storage hydro, thousands of new homes, every one of those projects needs skilled people to build it. That could be you. A career as a plant operator, wind turbine technician, scaffolder or steel fixer is not a fallback option. It’s a genuinely well-paid, in-demand role with many years of great work behind it.”

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