Young people from Paisley and Renfrewshire have been seeing for themselves the benefits of becoming an apprentice with one of the biggest engineering companies in the world. LAGTA Bosch (part of the Robert BOSCH Group) hosted a tour of their Service Training Base at Eurocentral as part of Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2018 and to showcase the potential of learning and earning.
Those participating in the visit are from the YES Programme, an employability scheme run by Kibble Group designed to help young people who are furthest from the jobs market. Young people are given extra support and training, work experience and qualifications to enter mainstream employment.
Scottish Apprenticeship Week is the nationwide campaign aimed at encouraging more employers to take on apprentices. This year’s campaign theme is ‘Apprenticeships are the Business’ and is highlighting the success of apprentices who have chosen work-based learning to get qualified to develop their careers.
Jim Gillespie, Chief Executive of Kibble Group, said:
“Statistics show the damage that youth unemployment can have on someone’s life chances. This is one of the reasons that the Kibble Group has invested heavily in providing training and employment opportunities for young people in Paisley and Renfrewshire. We look forward to working closely with Bosch in the future to identify more ways for young people to access apprenticeships.”
Martine McCreadie, Employer Liaison Officer for the YES Programme, said:
“I want to thank Bosch for their help in organising this visit from the YES Programme. There have already been a few young people who have been inspired to apply for apprenticeships on the back of this visit.”
Billy White, Operations Manager at Bosch, said:
“We are always delighted to forge new partnerships with other organisations and we know the staff at Kibble certainly make a difference to the lives of young people. If we can help with this goal we certainly will be happy to do so whenever possible and hopefully this will include some of the young people involved ending-up with apprenticeships in engineering or automotive.”