City Building has underlined its commitment to good working practice by holding a health and safety awareness day for all of its third year apprentices.

Guest speakers at the event on Friday 20th July included Jack Ross from PFA Scotland (Professional Footballers' Association).

Ross gave a talk on the theme of gambling awareness as part of an overall awareness programme that has been successfully rolled out to Scottish football clubs. It informs people of the dangers irresponsible gambling can pose to their careers and personal lives.

City Building is Glasgow City Council's arm's-length construction company. With a turnover of around £200 million, it is one of Scotland's largest construction firms.

The purpose of the day was to support the apprentices who took part and ensure they feel confident about talking to supervisors about any health and safety issues.

City Building apprentices also got the opportunity to update their knowledge on a range of topics including working at heights, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), uniform and manual handling.

Apprentices also received information from the NHS on healthy working lives in order to further complement their training programme.

Councillor Paul Carey, chair of City Building, said:

"At City Building we take employee health and safety extremely seriously. Events like this one mean that all our apprentices are fully aware of their responsibilities when it comes to staying safe in the workplace."

Dr. Graham Paterson, Acting Managing Director of City Building, added:

"These events are crucial dates in our calendar. As a leading apprentice trainer in Scotland we want our workforce to be as well informed as possible.

"As a large employer, the health and wellbeing of our workforce is important to us. Therefore getting this message over to our apprentices will stand them in good stead in their future lives."

The event was also attended by Health at Work. The organisation aims to ensure that all employees have the opportunity to work in ways that allow them to improve their health and well-being.

Debbie Nelson, Health Improvement Senior at Healthy Working Lives, who attended the event, said:

"Our mission is to assist with staff health, wellbeing and safety standards and make sure that we have a healthy and motivated workforce in Scotland.

"It's excellent that City Building has embraced our campaign and their staff and managers will reap the benefits of this joined up approach to health and wellbeing at work."