APPRENTICES studying on courses at Exeter College have come together to take part in a series of exciting and innovative events this week to mark National Apprenticeship Week (Monday, February 1 to Friday, February 5).
Throughout the week, numerous activities have been arranged involving apprentices across the faculties, preceded this morning with a Breakfast Seminar held for local businesses at which apprenticeships were discussed.
The programme begins on Monday with five Exeter College Hospitality apprentices giving cookery demonstrations at the Southgate Hotel to around 30 pupils from Devon schools – Isca College of Media Arts, West Exe Technology College, St Peter’s Church of England High School and Teignmouth Community College – before helping out with an activity session for the children in the restaurant.
The guest speaker, this year’s Exeter College Hospitality Advanced Apprenticeship of The Year award winner Brynley Phipps, will close the event by giving the pupils an insight into the industry and apprenticeships.
On Tuesday morning, between 10am and 12 noon, a team of Automotive apprentices will be offering free tyre checks to motorists using the Sainsbury’s car park in Pinhoe Road. In total, 12 students from the Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in Light Vehicle Maintenance and Repair will be attending with tutors to examine tyre pressure, tyre tread, and screen wash levels.
Meanwhile at Westpoint, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Hospitality apprentices will be taking part in this year’s EXPOWEST exhibition – an annual event on the hospitality industry calendar – offering barista demonstrations and showing off their culinary skills to visitors between 9am and 4pm.
Thursday will see a number of students enrolled on the Flybe Aerospace apprenticeship programme encouraging pupils from West Exe Technology College to take part in a model aeroplane-building competition.
Known as The Fly-Off, the challenge will be for the school children, aged 14 to 16, to build their magnificent flying machines from scratch using only the materials available, such as balsa wood, glue, and elastic bands. They will then be testing them out before lunch to see which goes the furthest.
After lunch, they will be able to print off their designs using CAD software before prizes are awarded to the winners.
Finally, on Friday, around 80 Year 9 girls city-based and Heart of Devon schools will be attending the Construction faculty’s annual Women In Construction day, at Falcon House, Sowton, where they be involved various activities aimed at encouraging them to consider Construction as one of their future study and career options.
They will take part in taster workshops ranging from carpentry and joinery and painting and decorating, to brickwork and electrical organised by Exeter College’s Construction faculty where there are currently 28 female students enrolled on a variety of courses, including apprenticeships.
Students Jamie-Lee Hardy and Danielle Windsor, who are attending Exeter College’s 14-16 and Learn 2 Work programmes, will be among a number of students at hand to share their own experiences on the day.
Also this week, eight Level 2 and Level 3 Professional Cookery apprentices will be carrying out an in-house competition to represent Exeter College in the World Skills Competition, taking place on March 16 in Bournemouth.
Exeter College takes great pride in its apprenticeship programmes, with individuals at the top of their game recognised annually through its Skills Awards. At the same time, it never under-estimates the importance and value of the support provided to them by the employers who take them on.
To celebrate this excellent relationship between the worlds of education and commerce, therefore, an additional event was hosted by the College’s Queen Street-based Exeter Business School as a precursor to National Apprenticeship Week – a Business Breakfast to which members of Exeter Chamber Of Commerce and Industry were invited on Friday, January 29.
Delegates began the day by listening to Celia Delaney, of Exeter-based Delaney & Hart, as she presented her light-hearted but business savvy talk on The WOW Factor – who needs it, why, and most importantly, what difference it will make to their business.
Celia – who has been a coach and trainer for 10 years, working with large organisations and small SMEs – called upon her audience to think about how they perceived themselves, how others perceived them, and where improvements could be made.
A talk by Fiona Parsons, of the National Apprenticeship Service, followed, entitled What Can An Apprentice Do For My Business?
In her speech, the Employer Service Manager for Exeter and South Devon gave the low-down as to how the National Apprenticeship Service is currently working with employers to create 400,000 apprenticeships nationally by 2020. She also discussed the benefits apprentices can bring to businesses, before inviting onlookers to ask questions of their own.
Also speaking at the event was Director of Employer Training Iain Hatt, who recently joined Exeter College from South Devon College and is well-placed to speak about apprenticeships for personal as well as professional reasons – having forged his present-day career as a result of having undertaken an apprenticeship through Exeter College himself.
He says: “I have first-hand experience of how beneficial it is to be working through an apprenticeship and how it can lead to a sounder career path. I would really encourage people to consider it as a viable route towards a successful future in employment.”