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Cumbrian apprentices stepping up to national challenge

Apprentices at Cumbria County Council are putting their best feet forward in a bid to be crowned 2014’s Apprentice Team of the Year.

The Brathay Apprentice Challenge is a nationwide scheme where teams of apprentices from all over the country go head-to-head in competition.

Cumbria County Council has nine apprentices from across the county currently taking part in the regional heats stage.

The competition is judged on two categories; raising awareness of apprenticeships and delivering a community project.

The community project they’ve chosen involves constructing a garden at Mill Lane Day Services in Walney – a centre for adults with learning disabilities where Trisha McGlone is employed as an apprentice support worker.

Probation Services have cleared the garden space in preparation for the apprentices and volunteers the apprentices have enlisted – including the Explorer Scouts, the National Autistic Society and Ford Park Community Garden - to construct the garden during National Apprenticeship Week (3-7 March).

To raise money for the garden project the apprentices are holding a 10-kilometer sponsored walk around Carlisle at 12pm on Thursday (20 February), starting and finishing at Carlisle Castle.

Cumbria County Council’s Chairman Alan Barry will be getting the walk underway alongside Carlisle MP John Stevenson.

As well as the sponsored walk, apprentices have also raised sponsorship by holding cake sales at county council offices.

Laura Mills, one of the apprentices on the team, said: “We’re really excited about doing the sponsored walk to raise money for the garden at Mill Lane. Creating a garden for the service users will be the high point of the whole Brathay Challenge. It’s been hard work to organise everything on top of doing our apprenticeships, but we’ve all learnt a lot.”

Councillor Ian Stewart, Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet Member responsible for the apprenticeship scheme, said: “Our apprentices are a real credit to themselves, the council and to Cumbria. They’ve come up with an excellent community project that’s going to benefit the vulnerable people that use Mill Lane.

“This challenge is a great way for the apprentices to put their expanding skills set into practice and have experiences that will be useful in their day-to-day apprenticeship roles with the council and in their longer-term careers.”

The top contenders from the regional heats of the Brathay Challenge then go forward to compete against other regions with the aim of scooping the national crown.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .