TEENAGER Nazaha Begum found herself at the centre of celebrations this week when she became the 100th apprentice to join a scheme set up by Oxfordshire County Council.

Ms Begum, 18, a former Oxford Spires Academy pupil from Rose Hill, was congratulated after taking up the social care apprenticeship by councillors including county council leader Keith Mitchell.

Ms Begum, who now works with older, physically disabled people at the council’s Oxford Options Resource and Wellbeing Centre in Horspath Driftway, said: “I was thrilled and completely surprised to learn I was the 100th health and social care apprentice. I find it very rewarding and I feel grateful for the opportunity.”

The scheme, which supervisor Helen Hannay began five years ago, won the 2009 Most Effective Employer Investment in Apprenticeships category at the Skills for Care Accolades.

It is unusual in that its apprentices are not tied to any one employer. The apprenticeships, lasting between 12 and 18 months, are formal training contracts under which the Government meets some or all of the training costs while employers pay the wages.

Ms Hannay said: “In our case the county council is the formal employer and we ‘lend’ the apprentices out to care homes and hospitals – who then pay us back the wages we pay the apprentices.

“I think our success is due partly to the support we give apprentices and partly to the rigorous selection process. People from all backgrounds, with and without A-Levels and GCSEs, join.

“But they all know what they’re taking on and they are people with staying power.”

Also at the ceremony, at County Hall this week, were past and present health and social care apprentices who spoke of their work with care providers, and at schools and colleges in the county.

Bethany Taylor, 16, of Abingdon, who was one of 17 apprentices who joined the scheme this year, now works with children with learning difficulties at the Kingfisher School, Abingdon.

She said: “You feel really appreciated and going somewhere. You get so much individual support here.

“Little things make you smile. For instance there was someone at the school who was not good at holding things – and then she held her cup.”

Past apprentices have taken up jobs such as occupational therapist assistants and senior care workers or have progressed to a university degree course in social work.

Councillor Keith Mitchell told the apprentices: “I became an apprentice in accountancy when I was 16. But the truth is that people like you can do without people like me; but people like me cannot do without people like you.”