Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2023 | Unlocking Potential blog by Cameron McLaughlin

This week is Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2023, a campaign showcasing how apprenticeships are unlocking potential in people and businesses.

Apprenticeships allow people from diverse backgrounds and abilities to gain and develop skills. These skills will support individuals throughout their life and in work.

In this blog post we hear from Cameron McLaughlin, Hillcrest Maintenance painter and decorator apprentice, as he reflects on his recent win of the Don Ridgway Award at Hillcrest’s Staff Awards. This award celebrates outstanding apprentices within Hillcrest Maintenance.

Winning the Don Ridgway Award

To win the Don Ridgway Award was brilliant as I felt like my hard work throughout the year had paid off and been noticed.

I am currently doing a painter and decorator apprenticeship and am in my 4th year of the four year course. I chose an apprenticeship as my path to go down after leaving college as you’re guaranteed a trade for life. No matter what I end up doing in my career, I’ll always be able to go back to my trade and have it as a backup for the rest of my life.

My experience as an apprentice

Being an apprentice at Hillcrest has been great as they always want to support you and push you towards your goals of your apprenticeship. It is also good working with squads of boys throughout the apprenticeship and getting the opportunity to learn from them.

Hillcrest has supported my development by offering different courses and groups within the organisation for me to attend or join. This has allowed me to learn in different ways and gather skills I didn’t have before.

The best part

The best thing about working at Hillcrest is the opportunities that you can get throughout the company and the way you’re not stuck doing the same thing all the time. They offer different path ways to different jobs throughout the company which is brilliant.

#ScotAppWeek23 #UnlockingPotential

Main photo: Cameron is pictured with Don Ridgway, Hillcrest Maintenance’s former chairperson