The student and business community come out in force for National Apprenticeship Week
Truro and Penwith College hosted a range of events to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week which saw both businesses and students come together to discuss the benefits and opportunities of Apprenticeships at Truro campus.
Over 50 employers from across Cornwall attended the Cornwall Business Club Apprenticeship Business Breakfast to enjoy networking over freshly baked pastries prepared by Apprentices in the College’s Spires restaurant and coffee shop. Guest speakers Shelley Tookey (St Austell Brewery), Helen Lynch (Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust), Jim Underwood (Restormel Machine Ltd) and Benjamin Milby (The Seafood Restaurant) shared how Apprenticeships are contributing to and boosting their businesses.
The guest speakers highlighted the benefits of working in partnership with Truro and Penwith College to create bespoke programmes and the support of the College’s Apprenticeship Recruitment Team to help match suitable candidates to new vacancies.
Benjamin Milby from The Seafood Restaurant, themselves winners of a National Apprenticeships 4 England Award last week, said: “We have a strong Apprenticeship journey developing both our current staff and new employees. It’s great to have people in the work place and this type of learning really benefits the business and allows for career progression. Our main aim is to provide long term employment with people staying and developing with us as a business.”
Helen Lynch, Vocational Training Manager, Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust brought one of her apprentices, Lucy Philips with her and highlighted the new energy and skills she has brought to the team.
“Having Apprentices within our team adds new skills and energy and challenges us all to relook at our skills particularly with IT,” said Helen Lynch.
The second part of the day saw activities turn to a student focus with a ‘Get Hired’ hour where students could hear from local businesses about what they look for and why Apprenticeships are a great career route. St Austell Brewery, BF Adventure and Mi Generation discussed the diverse opportunities available in Apprenticeships and focused on how students gain transferable skills that go beyond their initial training. Truro and Penwith College Business works with businesses to create training programmes that relate directly to the business’ needs. This means that new employees can embark on a career with multiple opportunities and the existing staff are able to take on new responsibilities and progress.
Richard Parkes, Company Trainer, St Austell Brewery said: “It’s a real merger of strengths between the business, the College and the Apprentices to achieve outstanding results.”
Truro and Penwith College’s Hair and Beauty Team then followed by presenting the professional Apprenticeships available within the sector including a barbering course and vacancies in the College’s own Apprentice run salon, Inspiration.
Students also took advantage of a drop in session where they could discuss their options and have their queries answered by the College’s Recruitment Team and business representatives.
Tamsyn Harris, Head of Business at Truro and Penwith College, added: “Apprenticeship Week has been a busy week and follows a year where the number of apprentices training with Truro and Penwith College has doubled as more employees see the business sense of bringing in new staff or training existing staff on an Apprenticeship Programme. It has been great to hear the resulting success stories from individuals and from their employers during our events in Apprenticeship Week.”
Truro and Penwith College works with a significant number of businesses across Cornwall to develop young talent and support businesses with recruitment as well as developing high quality relevant training solutions for all staff that influences future success.
For more information visit: http://www.truro-penwith.ac.uk/business or contact the Recruitment Team on 01872 267531.
Image: Left – Right:
Benjamin Milby, The Seafood Restaurant, Shelley Tookey, St Austell Brewery, Jim Underwood, Restormel Machine Ltd, Lucy Philips, Business Admin Apprentice at Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, Helen Lynch, Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust