Apprentices from BSW Fort William have been giving back to the community to celebrate Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2020.

Four squads of apprentices from our Corpach site, accompanied by their mentors, helped to renovate the gardens of elderly people in and around the Lochaber area.

Six elderly people in Lochaber were identified by local charity Lochaber Care who needed assistance making their gardens more accessible and easier to maintain.

Apprentices were kept busy converting gardens by building fences, moving washing lines, replanting, weeding and creating pathways, as well as having a cuppa and chat with those in need.

Oliver Stephen, Mill Manager at BSW Fort William, said: “We’d discussed what we would like to do this year for Scottish Apprenticeship Week, and we felt it would be good to look at something for the local community and Care Lochaber seemed the perfect fit.

“We were thrilled to be able to lend a hand in the local community and we’re really proud of all the apprentices that gave something back to those in need.”

Previous years have seen BSW Fort William apprentices build areas for local primary schools and a pergola for a special needs school in Inverness.”

BSW’s Fort William Sawmill is the biggest sawmill in the UK and lies 5 miles to the west of Fort William and Ben Nevis on a 67-hectare site.

The sawmill can process lengths from 2.4 – 8.0 metre lengths and it produces over a quarter of a million cubic metres of sawn timber a year.

Care Lochaber was set up in 1997 by a group of community-minded people. The group had concerns over the lack of appropriate transport for people disadvantaged by poverty, age, disability, ill health and rural isolation.

They established the Lochaber Community Car Scheme to help, and the service has now been running for twenty years.

In addition to the community car scheme, Care Lochaber organises social events for older people to provide opportunities for people to meet, talk and share.

Apprenticeship opportunities within the BSW Group are growing and the group provides roles which promote dedication, energy and ideas that benefit young people, the local communities and the BSW business.

To find out more about apprenticeship opportunities at BSW Timber please visit: https://www.bsw.co.uk/careers/apprentice-schemes.