The hard work and dedication of modern apprentices at the City of Edinburgh Council was recognised this week as 18 young people graduated and were given an industry award.
Among the graduates were three previous participants of Edinburgh Project SEARCH, the highly successful programme for young people with a disability.
This year apprentices came from a range of council services and for the first time we had graduates from facilities and housing. These services found the programme so successful that they are looking forward to taking on more apprentices next year.
At the ceremony, Cllr Eleanor Bird, Young People’s Champion, set the scene by speaking about the Council’s ongoing commitment to offer apprenticeships, thereby ensuring workforce development for the future.
She said: “It was a real privilege to hand out the certificates to our graduates this week. As a council, we need to lead by example by offering modern apprenticeships that develop our young workforce and nurture our rising stars.
“All of our graduates are to be commended for meeting the significant demands that come with the role, juggling paid work and on-the-job training as well as study towards an accredited qualification at industry-recognised standard.
“Just this week at our Education, Children and Families Committee, we discussed a paper on Edinburgh Learns – Pathways to Develop our Young Workforce, which shares the vision of the Edinburgh Guarantee that every young person in this city will go onto a positive destination – the choice of a job, training or further education opportunity. And this is it in action.”
At the event apprentice Hannah Layden spoke about her experience completing her housing apprenticeship and her progression to a permanent post as a Housing Assistant.
Hannah said: “The Modern Apprenticeship programme has been amazing for me. I have learned so much over two years and have had wonderful support from my team, mentors and the Modern Apprenticeship team.
“They helped me through the whole process of gaining my qualification, I couldn’t have done it without them. It was an amazing opportunity. I was really happy to get a job at the end of it.”
Connor Burt, who qualified in Facilities Services, said: “It has been memorable for me. The two years went really quickly and I have learned so much working with Facilities.
“Through my experience in the apprenticeship programme I was able to secure a full time position as a Facilities Technician. It was a great feeling to get my qualification sooner than I thought.”
The city council Chief Executive Andrew Kerr also attended and gave a personal account of his appreciation for the apprenticeship programme and the excellent apprentices that work in his office.
The Royal High School Fiddle Group played as the guests settled in their seats and Harris Wilson, a piper from Boroughmuir High School, helped to make the event special by piping the apprentices into the European Room to receive their awards.
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