Shetland's longest established and largest printer has notched up a notable first as one of its employees has achieved a prestigious management qualification.

Colin Grant, a manager at Shetland Litho was the first person in a pilot set up and funded by Shetland Enterprise to achieve the SVQ (Scottish Vocational Qualification) Level 5 in Management - the equivalent to an MBA or MSc. He is also one of the first people in the whole of Scotland to achieve the newly revised qualification.

Colin said: "This new route to achieving a management qualification fits in well with my work commitments and allows much of the evidence based criteria for achieving it to be carried out on-the-job.

"The valuable knowledge I have gained will enable me to be more effective as a manager which in turn will hopefully allow Shetland Litho to be more successful."

Shetland Enterprise are funding a dozen senior and middle managers from a range of Shetland companies to undertake SVQ Level 4 and 5 qualifications after a skills audit revealed a need for this type of training.

With the training required unavailable in Shetland, Inverness based ITP Solutions Ltd were selected from a number of possible contractors to deliver the training.

Rachel Hunter development manager from Shetland Enterprise said: "Developing people in work and making management and leadership training available to Shetland businesses is a key component to growing the local economy.

"The management training is flexible and tailored to each individual making it a highly effective way for different sectors of the Shetland economy to gain from it."