FERGUSON’s of Port Glasgow has scooped a national honour for its commitment to taking on apprentices.

The firm has been honoured with a prize at the annual Scottish Apprenticeship Awards in the small and medium sized (SME) ‘employer of the year’ category.

Fergusons Marine has committed to taking on 150 trainees by 2020 and has recruited 35 since last year.

The company’s head of human resources Kelly O’Rourke, pictured left, accepted the accolade at a ceremony at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

She said: “This is tremendous and we are delighted to have won the award.

“It shows that our commitment to apprenticeships has been recognised and we appreciate that.

“Our apprentices bring energy and enthusiasm and are a very important part of the company’s future.

“The apprenticeship programme allows us to capture the highly valued skills and knowledge of our workforce and transfer this to a new generation to help ensure sustainability and sound succession planning.”