The move into the private sector is a major development for Share, which since being founded in 1985 has become renowned for its support to Scotland’s social housing sector, delivering 350 training courses over the last calendar year alone.

It comes as landlords and letting agents face intensifying pressures through new and ever-increasing legislation, such as the Repairing Standard, which came into force in early March on top of the symptoms of the housing emergency.

Daryl McIntosh, chief executive with Share, said: “For coming up 40 years we’ve existed to support and upskill Scotland’s housing associations and registered social landlords.

“This move to expand our offering is a big development for us – and it comes at an important time, with the often-maligned private rented sector facing incredible workforce challenges.

“As a result, the skills gap in Scotland is significant. This has been particularly damaging to elements of the sector’s reputation.

“Landlords and letting agents play a hugely important role within the country’s housing mix – and closing this skills and accreditation gap will help to shed certain - less positive - aspects of the private sector’s reputation.”

As well as its own bespoke courses, Share provides training in partnership with and on behalf of an array of accredited bodies including CIH, City & Guilds, SQA, ILM, The Institute of Leadership and The Property Institute (TPI) (formerly IRPM).

The expansion reflects Share’s commitment to supporting both the private and social housing sector’s workforce amidst an urgent housing emergency.

Share’s innovative membership model offers discounted training, qualifications, e-Learning, and networking opportunities among its many benefits, and now includes individual membership to cater to personal career development needs.

Venturing into the private rental sector, Share aims to prepare landlords and letting agents for increasing legal requirements and to enhance service quality.

Daryl added: “This expansion is a natural step forward for Share, building on our hard-earned expertise to make a real difference in the private rental sector.

“We know there’s a real lack of good training materials for letting agents and landlords, but we hope that by providing professionals with the skills and knowledge they need, we can together raise the standard of housing in Scotland.

“More recently our training has been recognised by the Scottish Government and will now count towards the 20 hours of mandatory CPD that letting agents need to complete every three years, helping them to upskill and continue to improve professional standards.”

As a registered charity, Share invests all profits back into the services it provides, and has three key values, to be supportive, passionate and excellent in all that it does.