20/11/2008

• Stagecoach Manchester apprentice comes out on top
• Hat-trick of awards for transport group

A Stagecoach UK Bus apprentice has won a prestigious national award.

Manchester apprentice James Belfield (21) was named the 2008 winner of the Transport Engineering and Maintenance category at the GoSkills Passenger Transport Apprenticeship Awards ceremony in London.

The win means that Stagecoach apprentices have won the same award for three consecutive years.

This year James was joined on the awards short-list by two other Stagecoach apprentices – Kendal based Jamie Bateson (21) and Graham Evans (22) from the Swindon depot.

The awards – covering the rail, aviation and coach and bus industries – are organised by GoSkills, the Sector Skills Council for Passenger Transport.

Les Warneford, Managing Director of Stagecoach UK Bus, said: “I would like to congratulate James on his win – this award is credit to his personal commitment and also reflects the high standard of training and development we provide for our employees.

“Our apprentices are the future of Stagecoach and it’s extremely encouraging to see the high standard of work being produced in all our depots across the country. To have such quality within our ranks bodes well, not only for the future of Stagecoach, but for the passengers who travel on our buses.”

Winning apprentice James added: “It is a great honour to win this award and I would like to thank my mentors and engineering colleagues at Stockport and Princess Road depots in Manchester for the support they have given me.”

186 apprentices are currently in training with Stagecoach across its UK Bus operations, which stretch from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland to south-west England.

Stagecoach’s Apprenticeship Programme is one of the most comprehensive and challenging in the bus industry. It is specifically designed to produce qualified multi-skilled technicians to work on increasingly more technologically advanced vehicles.

Apprentices also have the opportunity to gain the experience required to become the engineering managers and directors of the future.

The programme, which is run in conjunction with Bristol-based S&B Training Ltd, was completely redesigned five years ago using the Transport Engineering Maintenance National Vocational Qualification and Technical Certificate run by the Institute of the Motor Industry.

Stagecoach also runs an Apprentice Plus Programme for those in their 4th Year. It includes training courses with manufacturers of bus parts as well as those actually building the buses.

An intensive one-week workshop also covers interpersonal skills, planning, coaching, mentoring and communications. This offers progression to the HNC/HND Foundation degree in Vehicle Operations Management.

Stagecoach’s award-winning programme has been extremely successful and for the last two years it has produced the “Apprentice of the Year” for the transport industry, as well as two runners-up.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

• Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport company with bus and rail operations in the UK and North America. The Group employs around 30,000 people and runs around 12,000 buses and trains.
• Connecting communities in more than 100 towns and cities, Stagecoach is one of UK’s biggest bus and coach operators. The company runs around 7,000 vehicles from Devon in south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, carrying around 2 million passengers every day.
• Stagecoach services cover many of the UK’s major cities, including Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Hull, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as key shire towns and rural areas. For further information, go to www.stagecoachbus.com.

For further information contact:

Lindsay Reid
Corporate Communications Manager
Stagecoach Group
10 Dunkeld Road
Perth
PH1 5TW
Phone: 01738 442111
Fax: 01738 443076
Mobile: 07500 446896
email: lindsay.reid@stagecoachgroup.com