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Success Rewards Adult Learners as Chamber Drives Forward Training Partnerships
Today was a special day for the first graduates of Edinburgh Community Technology Academy (ECTA) when they attended an awards ceremony at City of Edinburgh Council's state of the art Business Centre at the City Chambers in the High Street.
IT Essentials, and Microsoft Office Specialist graduates were presented with certificates and awards. In this picture, IT Essentials graduates pose with Rob Doyle of Learndirect Scotland and ECTA instructor Awais Akhtar.
ECTA is an outstanding example of the success of Partnerships with major players Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Cisco, Microsoft, Capital City Partnership, Edinburgh City Council, Randstad and Scottish Enterprise all working together to deliver a new approach to combine the twin challenges of skills shortages and unemployment into successful outcomes.
ECTA has run ground breaking courses giving free training to unemployed clients who now have industry recognised IT qualifications, including CompTIA, IT essentials and Microsoft Office specialist. Visitors including Raymond O'Hare Director Microsoft Scotland and Richard Jeffrey, President Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce met with the graduates and shared in the celebration of the early success of the project.
Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Business & Learning Manager Roger Horam said: "Business in Scotland needs skilled people – we all know this and there is much (perhaps too much) rhetoric devoted to putting Scotland’s unemployed into positions that drive the economy forward. I have great pleasure in moving away from mere words and inviting you to come and see what has been happening on the ground to provide a skilled labour force locally."
"The project is part of Edinburgh’s Joined up for Jobs strategy, designed to help find employment for those least able to get jobs. What is significantly different is that this course offers students the chance to springboard from unemployment into reasonably well paid jobs by amplifying their skills in a relatively short but intensive period of learning. Supplementary parts of the programme include learning valuable work environment and inter-personal communication skills and support in CV writing and general job search."