Apprentices scheme is going well
5:00pm Tuesday 7th February 2012 in News By Matthew Edwards
Abbie Legg, left, practises her hairdressing skills
MORE employees are required to meet the ever increasing demand for apprenticeships.
As part of National Apprenticeship Week, Swindon College, the biggest provider of apprenticeships in the town, is calling on more employees to get on board.
The college has 650 apprentices on its books in courses from plumbing to hairdressing, and according to the apprenticeships manager at Swindon College, Marie Sneddon, it is down to the town’s railway heritage.
She said: “Swindon College have always offered apprenticeships for many years going back to the days of the railways.
“I often get people saying to me ‘I used to have an apprenticeship at the railway’ or ‘my dad used to be an apprentice on the railway’ so I think it goes back to then.
“Swindon College has a lot of vocational courses where apprenticeships go hand in hand with.
“People are finding it difficult getting jobs at the moment so a lot of people are choosing apprenticeships. When they go for jobs they are being asked for experience which they don’t have but that is part and parcel of doing an apprenticeship, they are working and gaining real experience.
“We are always looking for new employees. It is such a good opportunity for them to take a young person on because they are able to mould that person into what they need them to be, they can be exactly what they want.”
Bob Hopgood, proprietor of Second 2 None Garage in Faringdon, employs two Motor Vehicle Apprentices from Swindon College.
He said: “I decided to take on an apprentice because I started in the trade from a young age when I was 16 and followed my way through apprenticeships.
“It was a good learning curve for me and this is an opportunity to extend it to other people.
“It is a good opportunity for us because they are learning and working the way we like to work.
Max Ryzhuk, who is on the light motor vehicle apprenticeship course at Swindon College, said: “I chose to do it because my granddad was a mechanic, my dad is a mechanic and it is something that is in the blood.
“The way it works is I get to go to college once a week and then the rest is on the job training where I get to put everything into practice.
“The advantages is being able to work and being able to study a swell as working pretty much full time and getting paid for it.”
