Training news: web site initiative for reformed drun addicts

• A project to train former drug addicts to run their own web site design company has been set up in Kingston upon Thames. The scheme is one of five launched last week by the Centre for Social Inclusion to help 200 former drug addicts return to work. They were set up following concern that being out of work makes people more prone to go back to drugs.

• Music retailer Our Price is working with three outside training providers to ensure employees make a smooth transition to its new branding as V.Shop. Alchemy Associates will be handling culture change issues, MSB will concentrate on customer service and Headline Training will provide product training, ensuring that all staff can speak knowledgeably about new products.

• Catering company Sodexho gave 180 catering students an enviable work placement recently when it took them on for the Open Golf Championship at St Andrew’s. HR director Linda Brennan said the placement allowed the company “to have in-put into the students’ training, which is important as they are potential employees of the future”.

• Airtours Holidays is putting 10 recruits through the Business Administration and Customer Services modern apprenticeship scheme this year – double the number entered in previous years.

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Airtours training officer Sharron Urey said the scheme is producing high-calibre trainees. “Over the past two years 100 per cent of trainees on the programme have obtained their NVQs and gained permanent employment with us.”