Home
>
Corporate
>
Press Release
>
2006 Press Releases
>
The Consortium receives business accolade
The Consortium receives business accolade for work with children with learning difficulties
28th March 2006
Critchill School pupils and
staff with The Consortium
staff members
Procurement and fulfilment company The Consortium has been presented with a leading business award in recognition of its work with children with learning difficulties.
Jeff Gould was appointed as a stationery buyer at the Trowbridge firm in 1970, sharing a telephone with four colleagues at a terraced house in Trowbridge.
For several years the Trowbridge-based organisation, which sells thousands of products in areas such as schools supplies and care products, has been offering work experience to Year 11 pupils at Critchill School in Frome.
The Consortium has developed and grown the programme over the years to the extent that it has now been recognised in this year's Somerset Business Lynx Awards, organised by a business education network comprising organisations such as Business in the Community, Tourism Skills Network, CITB Construction Skills and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The Consortium's annual work experience programme begins in January with detailed Health and Safety training, followed by ten weeks of work experience on a one-day-a-week basis. Each student is given a dedicated mentor, some of whom have now registered to offer voluntary support for students outside the workplace.
Gina Holland, Business Services Manager at The Consortium, who received the award at a recent ceremony in Taunton, said: "Everyone who touches this programme gets a real buzz and a great feeling of satisfaction in seeing just what these young people can achieve.
"The Consortium's culture fully supports opportunity and diversity, and believes in getting involved in working with the local community, so we were delighted to be nominated for an award by the school.
"What began as small-scale support has developed over the years into a planned and detailed programme of work experience encompassing a wide variety of activities.
"Likewise, what for many years was an opportunity in our warehouse only, has now been extended to give students the chance to work in other areas of our business, such as reception and the mail and print room."
Simon Bowditch, assistant head at Critchill School, which has 60 pupils aged four-16, added: "The Consortium has made an outstanding contribution to our pupils' development.
"We are privileged to have been afforded facilities which would be envied by many mainstream schools and this has resulted in a model of work experience which can demonstrate progression throughout Year 11."