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1 July 1997
Skills gained through a Skillseekers modern apprenticeship scheme were used by trainees at Rosyth Dockyard to design and make a new Budget Box gift for Chancellor Gordon Brown, their local MP.
Mr Brown will use the new Box to deliver his first Budget, detailing the Welfare To Work programme, to Parliament on Wednesday 2 July.
Welcoming the gift, Mr Brown said:
"Training and education are key to Britain's future economic development and growth. They are at the heart of my Budget, which will set out how we shall make training opportunities available to all young people unemployed for more than six months.
"I should like to thank all those involved at Rosyth for the skill and effort that they have shown in making a new Box for a new Budget.
"It is wholly appropriate that its first use will be to deliver good news about the New Deal for the many others of their age who have not yet been able to develop skills of their own which will help them into meaningful long term employment."
1. Four industrial trainees at the Babcock Rosyth Defence Lts ship and submarine dockyard were involved in designing and making the new Budget Box to replace the existing Box, known as the Gladstone Box', which has been in use since about 1860.
2. The new Box is made of yellow pine, with a brass handle and lock, covered in scarlet leather, embossed with the Royal initials and crest, and the Chancellor's title. The trainees were responsible for the design and manufacture of the Box, while the leatherwork was carried out by a local small craft business, Manacraft Leather.
3. Further details of the design and manufacture of the Budget Box and the training programmes at Rosyth are available from senior training officer Alasdair Kerr on 01383 423322.