Apprentices shine at awards

Glasgow Caledonian University’s cutting-edge credentials for Graduate Apprenticeships were acknowledged last night with two wins at the Scottish Apprenticeships Awards.

Meg Scott, who is studying Civil Engineering at GCU and works with Glasgow-based global engineering firm AECOM, won Graduate Apprentice of the Year, while Advanced Clothing Solutions, a GCU employer partner, won Supporting Net Zero Apprentice Employer of the Year.

Graduate Apprenticeships help participants learn on the job while working towards finishing a degree at university or college.

Meg (21) is responsible for the development of signalised junctions, traffic calming measures and walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure design at AECOM.

A project she delivered for Aviemore has been used to secure funding and help appoint a contractor, while she has also been praised by Glasgow City Council for her work on its Spaces for People schemes.

Meg’s achievements have earned her Graduate Apprentice of the Year.

AECOM associate director Peter Leslie added: “Meg’s passion for engineering lies in its importance in lowering our carbon footprint and creating a sustainable future. The way she has embraced each project while undertaking her Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) in Civil Engineering at GCU has been incredible. Meg is a real asset to the Streets team in AECOM.”

Fiona Stewart-Knight, Assistant Vice Principal Business & Director at GCU’s Institute for University to Business Education, said: “Congratulations to inspiring Civil Engineering Graduate Apprentice Meg Scott and her employer AECOM. Glasgow Caledonian University is so proud to have Meg in our midst, showing women and girls how exciting and empowering engineering can be. Collaborating with our 304 strong Scottish employer base to enhance diversity and encourage more women and girls into STEAM Graduate Apprenticeships, it is so important that we have contemporary role models like Meg to build confidence and encourage participation.”

Advanced Clothing Solutions (ACS) won the Supporting Net Zero Apprentice Employer of the Year award. The company is aiming to achieve net zero by 2025. In partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University, ACS runs an apprenticeship programme which currently boasts six Graduate Apprentices but it is envisaged that there will be 40 more apprenticeship opportunities from this year to support company growth.

A number of innovations led to ACS winning its category, such as the design of a new onboarding process that enables fashion brands to join the circular economy.

ACS’s Head of Transformation and Sustainability Michael Cusack said: “ACS apprenticeships enable students to increase their capacity for critical thinking and analysis. This is especially relevant in an organisation that is passionate about the delivery of an effective, circular fashion economy.”

GCU is the largest provider of Graduate Apprenticeships in Scotland. Since 2017, it has established 10 GA frameworks, growing from 84 participants to 657 in by 2021/22, with more than 210 employers now engaged. The University’s GA programmes have an age diversity of 16 to 60 and cover industries from Transport and Construction to Financial Services and Technology. GCU has had 127 graduations to date of degree level or above.