Welcome to the Damar Training Blog

There was an article about Damar in the Manchester Evening News business section on 31st March 2011. A copy is attached.

MEN Article

A letter from Damar’s managing director, Jonathan Bourne, was published in the Manchester Evening News on 5th March 2011. A copy of the letter (which also features Kevin Webster and Tyrone Dobbs from Coronation Street!)  is attached below.

MEN letter 5.3.11

 

We were delighted to visit NHS Salford today to present Stephen Smith with Damar’s learner of the month award. Stephen, who works in the Child Welfare team, has just completed his advanced apprenticeship in business and administration. Stephen was nominated by his Damar assessor, Alison Minay, because of the exceptionally high quality of his work.

Our thanks go also to Stephen’s manager, Anne King, and to Sarah Atcha and Val Whitehead in the training team for supporting the apprenticeship programme at Salford NHS. 

We were delighted to present Josh Finn with our learner of the month award earlier this week. Josh was placed by Damar as an apprentice at Exchange Chambers (www.exchangechambers.co.uk), one of the leading sets of barristers’ chambers in the North of England. Since he was placed, Josh has gone from strength to strength and has now achieved his advanced apprenticeship in business and administration.

Josh is pictured below with his Damar assessor Nicola Clayton. Our congratulations go to Josh and to the team at Exchange Chambers.

Stockport Council has announced the launch of up to 50 Apprenticeship Grants of £1,000 to employers who take on a 16, 17 or 18 year old Stockport resident.

Damar is fully behind this innovative scheme which plans to create 50 opportunities for local young people in no more than 50 days, starting on 7th February 2011. 

We currently have a number of strong candidates who are looking for apprenticeship opportunities with Damar. They would welcome the opportunity to show your organisation how much they have to contribute.

Most of our apprentices in this age group between £100 and £200 per week. So, even if your organisation isn’t currently recruiting at more senior levels an apprentice is a very cost effective way of getting those entry level tasks done and freeing up staff time elsewhere.

To find out more, please contact a member of Damar’s recruitment team on 0161 480 8171 or email jonathan@damartraining.com.

Damar Assessor Jane Hardy (pictured below) successfully guessed the name of Pudsey’s brother (he’s called Hunter by the way) in our “name the bear” competition for Children in Need, which raised £66 in all. Many thanks to all those visitors to Damar and staff who chose a name and donated!

Set out below are the core vision and policy statement set out our equality and diversity policy. We value the comments and views of our learners, employers, staff and other stakeholders so if you have any comments, please let us know.

Vision

At Damar Training we are committed to promoting equality and diversity within all our activities and are determined to create a culture in which unlawful discrimination is not tolerated.

We believe that diversity within our team, our learners and our wider customer base are all essential to our success and strength as a provider.

Policy Statement

Every individual should be treated fairly, respectfully and with dignity and to this end we are determined to proactively tackle all forms of inequality. We will ensure that all staff, learners, visitors and other stakeholders have the right to:

• Be healthy
• Stay safe
• Enjoy and achieve
• Make a positive contribution
• Achieve economic wellbeing

Regardless of:

• Age
• Disability
• Sex
• Race (including racial group, nationality, national origin, skin colour and ethnicity)
• Religion, belief and non-belief
• Sexual orientation
• Gender transition
• Marital / civil partnership status
• Pregnancy or maternity
• Social / economic background
• Any other inappropriate distinction.

We have updated our policy on equality and diversity to reflect the changes resulting from the Equality Act 2010. If your organisation has not yet updated its policy it’s worth having a look at ours (click link below to download). There is some excellent guidance on the new legislation at the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s website at www.equalityhumanrights.com.

Equality and Diversity Policy.pdf

On Friday 19th November, Damar assessor Lyn Henderson braved the icy waters of the Blue Planet Aquarium to go swimming with sharks! The swim was in aid of charity (and Damar customer) Kidscan. Kidscan (www.kidscan.org.uk) who are based in Salford, carry out groundbreaking research into childhood cancers.

 The photo shows Lyn in the water….. that shape behind her head is a shark!

Well done to Lyn and thank you to all those who sponsored her.