As part of Modern Apprentice week, the directors of Quest are delighted to announce that they are sponsoring 6 of their Admin SVQ candidates in their stroll over the bridge – well it’s a stroll at their age!!
On Thursday 8 March, several of these candidates, plus many other apprentices on differing programmes with the Council, took part in a sponsored walk over the Tay Bridge. All funds raised will go to Radio Tay's Cash for Kids, a local charity where every penny directly benefits children and young people aged 0-18 with a focus on improving quality of life, personal development and the fulfilment of aspirations.
Having reached the advanced age of ?? and with years of sports injuries behind him, their SVQ assessor from Quest decided that a walk of such a distance would have a severely adverse effect on his health!!
Some of the candidates have been kind enough to provide us with a brief statement on how they view their apprenticeship and their SVQ in Business & Administration.
Niamh Patterson at Leisure & Culture commented to Neil: “An apprenticeship was the right step for me to take, I began studying Marketing and Business at university and soon realised I’d thrown myself straight into the deep end, 4 more years of classroom learning just wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to leave until I’d found myself a secure job, which, is where I began scouring every job site I could find. Eventually I stumbled upon Admin apprenticeships, something I’d never heard of before as I thought it was only possible to do an apprenticeship in a trade. Since being successful in gaining my position people have had only good things to say about working for the council, that I should try and stick in here for as long as I can.
Admin was something I studied when doing my Highers I knew I had a keen interest for it, that it would be enjoyable to me. As well as completing Admin tasks daily I’ve had the chance to tag along to meetings with different departments and centres to see what goes on elsewhere. With being a part of Leisure and Culture and having the different centres and sports events ongoing it keeps the job exciting as I know I won’t just be stuck behind my desk all day every day of the week. There is plenty of opportunity to go out and about with people from my office. I’ve not yet decided what I’d like to do when my apprenticeship ends, whether I’ll push myself into a one-year college course to further my qualifications or continue to pursue full time work. My time with LACD so far has definitely given me a very good idea of what direction I’m headed in.”
Kiera Mills is in the Pensions Department at Dundee House: “I’m a Modern Apprentice at Dundee House, I work in the pension’s department. I have been working there since November, I am really enjoying learning and working here as I have always wanted to see what work in business and admin would be like. Since I started working at Dundee House I have gained a lot more confidence in myself which I did not have a lot of before I started working here. I’m really happy I got the chance to be a modern apprentice because whilst I get hands on experience, I also get to work towards a SVQ in Administration. The SVQ I am working towards is straight forward and I am enjoying writing down about my experience here and the tasks I have been given to complete. Once I complete my SVQ it will be great to look back on how much I have achieved. I hope that in the future this SVQ and experience will help me towards my career.”
Jennifer Lamont is employed at the City Square Box Office: “I think to receive this apprenticeship was a great opportunity for me. I hope to progress onto a full-time job when I finish the apprenticeship. I have really enjoyed working through the SVQ so far and feel it has a wide variety of parts to complete which keeps it interesting. I also think it is a really good thing that my assessor is always there to give feedback on my work and let me know what I need to improve on.”
Dylan Muir at Leisure & Culture: “Being an employee for Dundee City Council has given me a great opportunity. I have only been a modern apprentice at Leisure and Culture Dundee for just over 3 months and have already learned so much. Working for Leisure and Culture Dundee has shown me how big the organistion actually is and how much of an effect it has on the city. It is also opened my eyes to the vast amount of options and opportunities for future employment that not only Leisure and Culture Dundee has to offer, but Dundee City Council as a whole. Overall, I have fully enjoyed my time as a clerical apprentice and hope the rest of my year is as bright as the first couple of months have been here.”
Joe Hayes started his apprenticeship at the same time as the others mentioned: “I am a Modern Apprentice working within the Support Services section of Leisure and Culture Dundee which provides back office support to the customer facing services of the organisation to allow them to deliver their services to the public. The functions that Support Services cover are HR & Staffing, Payroll and Finance functions, and central support on property issues, vehicles, IT and Equality & Diversity. Now that I’ve got a feel for the various functions of the Support Services section. I would be hoping that there was a vacancy at the end of my Modern Apprenticeship so that I could stick around and hopefully get a job within the Finance Team. Being a Modern Apprentice means that I have to complete a qualification along the way, that qualification being an SVQ2. I was quite nervous about having to do this at the beginning but after having a few sit downs with Neil, he has explained the whole qualification and helped me get started and I now feel that I won’t have any difficulty getting through it.”
Vocational Training Co-ordinator at Dundee City Council, Kirsty Turnbull, commented: “Quest & DCC Modern Apprentice team have a long-standing, positive working relationship. Over the last 8 years Quest have provided excellent delivery of the Business & Administration programme and a good number of young people have achieved valuable, industry-recognised qualifications at SVQ level 2 and 3. This has helped develop Dundee City Councils’ young workforce aspirations.”
Neil Mason comments on the MA programme: “It’s a source of great pride to all of us at Quest to be involved with apprentices in Business & Administration in conjunction with Dundee City Council, Perth & Kinross, Fife Council and other employers throughout the country. There is a great sense of achievement when visiting Dundee House and seeing so many of our former candidates now in permanent full-time careers. We recently started a new candidate at Hutchison Technologies, where a few years ago two young people started their careers there and I was delighted to see they are both still there in established permanent roles, helping a local business expand.”
If you would like any information about being an apprentice or employing an apprentice in Business & Administration, please contact Neil on 01382 668760 or neil@questscotland.co.uk or Laura on laura@questscotland.co.uk.
Quest (Scotland) Ltd
Quest are a training provider, delivering learning opportunities and Qualifications. This includes a Train the Trainer Qualification, SVQs in Management, Learning and Development, Customer Service and Administration and Professional Development Awards, all accredited by the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
Dundee City Council
Dundee draws skilled workers from a 60-minute catchment population of 640,000 and has a local population of over 140,000. The availability of a large pool of highly skilled labour is a key feature in the Dundee economy. Flexibility in the labour force is currently more prevalent in Dundee than in Scotland as a whole. All forms of labour market flexibility - part-time, temporary employment, self-employment and shift work - are widely operational within the city. Labour force stability in the city is excellent, enabling companies to plan with confidence. Labour turnover levels are less than 5% and absenteeism averages 2%.
