News & Events
CommunityMark for NUKEM Limited at Dounreay for Supporting Education & Sport
12 June 2007
NUKEM Limited at Dounreay has been awarded CommunityMark status by Scottish Business in the Community which recognises small and medium sized enterprises that support their local community.
The award was presented to NUKEM Limited Head of Site Alan Gerrard and Consultant Roger Saxon by HRH Prince Charles, Duke of Rothsay at a prestigious event held in Prestonfield House, Edinburgh on Thursday 31 May.
NUKEM and its employees support many local and national charities, but the application was submitted on just two of these: education and sports.
Thurso High School Board clerk and NUKEM employee Peter Hardyman said: “We support the High School with their student organiser, which helps them to keep track of classes, course work and homework in one handy booklet. We also gave tutorials in nuclear decommissioning at both Thurso and Wick High schools. This helps to explain the nature of our work and future employment opportunities”. The company also helps out at the annual Caithness Science Festival, Ambassadors for Science and careers fairs.
Through involvement in the Caithness Sports Council, former NUKEM employee Ken Nicol was aware that many sports clubs struggle to maintain their skills and that volunteers were vital to the continuance of competitive sport. Ken suggested an annual grant, to support coaching development. In addition to this, NUKEM also created and maintains the SCS website and membership database which helps in the administration of grants and raising awareness of sports available in the county. Outgoing Sports Council chairman and NUKEM employee Roger Saxon said: “The Sports Council are very grateful for the continuing grant support from NUKEM, guaranteed on a rolling three year basis – it has made a real difference to sport in the county and our website has been held up as an exemplar for other sports councils to follow”.
Alan Gerrard said: “We like to think of this award as recognition of our investing in the community. Caithness is facing severe socio-economic challenges with the decommissioning of Dounreay and continual reduction of employment in an economically fragile area. We would like to think our community programme goes some way towards maintaining confidence, both for inward investment and retention of skills in the area”.