Borders MSP in partnership plea to local colleges over apprenticeships

Mrs Hamilton heard directly from apprentices, employers and training providers about the benefits they have experienced from on-the-job learning.

Co-ordinated by Skills Development Scotland, the campaign theme this year is ‘Talent Without Limits’. During the week, activities and events took place up and down the country.

The MSP wants to see apprenticeships at the heart of educating young people for a future career.

She said: “It was excellent to meet with the apprentices from Scottish Borders Housing Association. They are a hard-working and enthusiastic group who showed me what skills they had acquired during their apprenticeships.

“We need to rebalance our educational system with a greater emphasis on vocational education and more choice for pupils.”

Mrs Hamilton added: “Businesses in the Borders make the most of apprenticeships and use them as a pipeline for recruitment and filling the skills gaps in their business. It would be great if local colleges could provide more partnership learning opportunities to help deliver apprenticeships, so that apprentices didn’t have to travel so far for the theoretical part of the training.”

She also voiced the need for more females enrolling in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and agricultural apprenticeships.