Gateshead Apprentices Nominated For North-East Regional Finals » Housing » 24dash.com

Three top apprentices from Gateshead have been recognised for their work repairing and maintaining homes for Gateshead Council. They have all been nominated as finalists in contractor Morrison Facilities Services regional Apprentice of the Year awards.

Morrison Facilities Services is delivering maintenance and repairs worth £40 million to 23,000 homes owned by Gateshead Council. This includes significant improvements such as fitting new bathrooms, kitchens and windows to bring homes up to the governments Decent Homes Standard.

The three apprentice award finalists are Kyra Marshall, Stefan Pooley and Scott Purcell.

Kyra Marshall (18) is an apprentice plumber. She joined Morrison Facilities Services in August 2007. Since then she has been working on the Decent Homes programme on the Springwell estate doing house renovations. She has just commenced the second year of her apprenticeship.

She attends Newcastle College to learn the theory of plumbing. So far she has achieved above 80 per cent in all her exams.

Apprentice joiner Stefan Pooley (19) joined Morrison Facilities Services in August 2007 and has been working on the re-lets section. He is involved in repairing and upgrading homes prior to their reallocation to new tenants.

Stefan attends Newcastle College and has achieved good results and credit passes in his exams. In his spare time Stefan is a keen footballer and plays as a striker for the St Josephs team in Gateshead.

The third of the nominees, Scott Purcell (22), is also an apprentice plumber. He has also been working on the re-lets section since joining the company in August 2006.

Scott attended Newcastle College and achieved very good results. He is in one of the first groups to go onto the gas training. He has now successfully completed his apprenticeship and has been offered a full time contract with Morrison. He is a keen football player and plays five-a-side for the Westend boys team.

Assessment to select an overall winner of the Apprentice of the Year will be made against criteria such as attendance, attitude, efficiency and qualification achievement which were evaluated by course tutors, Morrison mentors and line managers.

Apprentices join the training scheme for around four years and nominees for apprentice of the year may be selected from any of the years.

The final selection and awards ceremony will be held at the Marriott Hotel at the Metro Centre Gateshead on 5 November.

Linda Colburn, partnership director at Morrison, said: Morrisons apprenticeship scheme provides fantastic opportunities for local people to learn a skilled trade as well as study for recognised qualifications.

It is important for companies such as Morrison to invest in training and in the skills of local people. We have a team of dedicated apprentices and our awards schemes enable us to recognise their hard work and commitment.

The eventual winner of the regional final will go forward to compete in the national awards against other regional finalists in the hope of being named as Morrisons national Apprentice of the Year at an event in early 2009.

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Notes to editors:
Morrison Facilities Services is one of the largest providers of social housing services. It looks after over 400,000 homes in the UK, providing repair and maintenance services for councils, housing associations and arms length management organisations (ALMOs).