Care Provider Shortlisted For Award

A Tayside company has been named as a finalist in the Scottish Modern Apprenticeship Awards 2006. Specialist healthcare services provider Castlebeck, which has units in Dundee and Lockerbie, is one of two finalists in the category for medium-sized employers. Modern Apprenticeships combine paid employment with the opportunity to train for jobs at craft, technician and management level. In Scotland, they are managed by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

The awards will showcase the leading apprentices, training providers, colleges and employers at a gala dinner in the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Edinburgh on October 12. The ceremony is a celebration of the high standards being achieved and the award categories give everyone involved in the Modern Apprenticeship programme in Scotland the opportunity to be recognised.

The 2006 awards have seen an increase in the quality of entrants and there are a wide range of finalists, representing workplaces large and small, in both the public and private sectors. Television personality Stephen Jardine will host the awards and the event is expected to attract an audience of more than 300 guests from across the Scottish business community.

Castlebeck is committed to raising the standards in specialist healthcare and rehabilitation services for people with learning disabilities across the UK, including at its two units in Dundee. The company has pursued this aim for nearly 10 years and the MA programme is playing an increasingly important role.

“We recruit people for their life skills, positive attitudes, experience and approach towards service users,” said training manager Aidan Hughes, “but we also have a very strong training infrastructure.

“The foundation of our training programme is the SVQ in Health and Social Care and we have found that the Modern Apprenticeship, with its structured but flexible planning, is the ideal method to deliver that level of qualification.”  

Scottish Enterprise Tayside skills and learning director Margaret McCollam said: “I’d like to congratulate Castlebeck for reaching the final. The Modern Apprenticeship programme is a great success story for Scotland. Apprentices make a real difference to the organisations that they work for – recent evaluation has shown that 70% of businesses employing MAs saw improvements in their productivity.

“The outcomes of the programme are improving all the time and we compare very well with other parts of the UK in relation to performance and value for money.”