Babcock Marine (Clyde) and Clydebank College picked up the first prize in the Relationship category sponsored by The Big Partnership at the inaugural Business to College Awards 2009, hosted at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on Wednesday 25 March.
The ‘Business to College Awards 2009' event was the first of its kind and was a partnership between Scotland's Colleges and The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). These awards set themselves apart from the crowd in that they are FROM businesses TO colleges and have been designed to recognise the many ways in which colleges support business sustainability.
Liz McTaggart, Director of Business Growth at the college commented “We were absolutely delighted to learn that Babcock Marine valued the contribution the college makes to its business processes and had nominated us for this award. Babcock is a great company to work with; they are truly committed to ensuring the best training and development for their workforce and we are proud to be a part of this.
Actually winning the award was the icing on the cake; it gives public recognition of the sterling work going on in Scotland’s Colleges and the contribution they are making to support the Scottish economy.”
Almost 80 submissions were received from colleges all over Scotland and was commented from Scotland’s Colleges as being ‘a resounding success’. Impressively, Clydebank College was one of only two colleges in the West of Scotland to pick up an award.
The relationship between Clydebank College and Babcock Marine began more than 10 years ago and since that time a strong partnership has developed. Babcock Marine is a strategic UK provider of engineering and support services to the Royal Navy. One of the main challenges for the company is to ensure the ongoing availability of skilled personnel to support its business aspirations. The relationship between the two West Dunbartonshire organisations began with the delivery of a customised 4-year apprentice training programme with 15 apprentices recruited annually; this figure is set to increase to 30 this year. A team approach is taken with the company and the college sharing the training and assessment responsibilities.
The partnership was further strengthened in 2007 when the company was proud to sponsor the college through the creation of The Babcock Marine School of Engineering. Babcock Marine is also currently discussing sabbatical opportunities of between 3 and 6 months which will involve members of college staff being involved in Babcock process improvement projects.
