Glasgow Take the Lead in Apprenticeship Race

Construction union UCATT have warmly welcomed the commitment from Steven Purcell, Glasgow City Council Leader, that every school leaver in Glasgow will be offered the opportunity of an apprenticeship in construction in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games.

The plan to offer 2,000 Trade Apprenticeships, in total, will cover half of Glasgow’s school leavers, with the other half going to University or Further Education. The plan was announced at last weekend’s Scottish Labour Party Conference

Harry Frew, Scottish Regional Secretary, said: “This is the kind of commitment we have been waiting for from employers. With Glasgow winning The Commonwealth Games, what better legacy to leave behind than 2,000 fully trained construction apprentices. As a union we will work closely with the City Council and it’s partners to ensure a smooth transition in this momentous commitment.”

Mr Frew, added, “Last year we were involved in registering 2,700 apprentices, with some 12,000 applying for jobs. It is clear that Scotland’s future workforce is waiting there to be trained, and Glasgow City Council are going a long way to achieving this.”

The commitment to train 2,000 skills based apprentices on the Commonwealth Games is far in excess of training on the Olympics. The Olympic Delivery Authority are only planning to train 1,000 young workers. While the Commonwealth Games will have craft based on site training up to NVQ level 3, the Olympics have opted for an inferior primarily classroom based training package to NVQ level 2.

The construction industry needs 88,000 new recruits per annum. Last year employers could only find places for 7,000 new apprentices. The number of construction apprentices is far higher in Scotland than in the rest of Britain.

For Further information contact Barckley Sumner on 0780 2329235