Case Studies
Administration Apprentice, Tulip (TMB) Ltd, Malvern
Emma, aged 18, joined Tulip Cleaning and Laundry Services, Malvern in November 2011. She was recruited after Melanie Baker, Director of Tulip, attended an employers' event in Worcester, 2011, and was introduced to the Apprenticeship Scheme. Tulip was expanding its services and client base and employs a large number of part time staff locally; Melanie identified Tulip needed additional office support to enable business development and market growth. As an apprentice in her youth, Melanie was keen to offer a local young person the opportunity to earn whilst learning essential administration skills and provide them with appropriate training in a busy workplace.
Since joining Tulip, Emma has become a valued staff member, learning a wide range of administration skills from colleagues in the office, increasing her knowledge and experience of the business world. She has improved her IT skills, developed customer service and organisation skills, and become a confident telephone user. As an apprentice, Emma is observed and assessed in the workplace and at South Worcestershire College (Malvern campus); her assessor has commented on Emma's progress - "she is compiling a comprehensive portfolio of diverse evidence which reflects a growing range of up to date administration skills and competencies relevant to today's changing workplace". On completion of her apprenticeship, Emma will achieve her NVQ Certificate in Business Administration, Certificate in Principles of Business and Administration and a relevant ICT qualification.
Staff at Tulip say "Emma is a bright, enthusiastic and valued member of the team who can do a whole lot more than just make tea!"
College works with us
Health and Social Care Olivet is a purpose built residential, nursing and dementia care home. They provide nursing and residential care for up to 65 persons of 65 years of age or above and the service is exclusively offered to those of the Christadelphian faith.
South Worcestershire College (SWC) has for a number of years worked with the company to deliver NVQs in the workplace from Level 2-4 in Health and Social Care. In addition to this we have provided management qualifications to their trainee managers who then disperse around the country to work in their sister homes. This partnership has contributed to the development of their highly skilled staff where they have far exceeded the original guidance of 50% of the workforce trained to NVQ level 2 or equivalent.
Christine Furniss, the Care Home Manager, expresses her satisfaction of the College as follows, "SWC has been the best provider to the organisation - staff felt the assessors knew their stuff and they felt supported at all times."
The Skills for Care Workforce Development Strategy is to provide a capable, confident and skilled workforce. Nationally, demand for care and support will continue to increase. There is a refocused support for the development of the Apprenticeship programmes to provide high quality training opportunities for young people and adults.
SWC are supporting this strategy and will continue to provide the Level 2 and 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care as work based provision along with a Level 2 Apprenticeship and Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship programme.
Allen PMW in Pershore
Phil Allen, owner of Allen PMW, a BMW specialist garage based in Pershore, decided to employ an Apprentice because of his own experience as an Apprentice when he first left school.
"For me, as an employer, the main benefit of having an apprentice is that you can train them to work how you want them to work" said Phil.
"The College helped me with the recruitment of my Apprentice, Jamie. An assessor from the College comes to see Jamie once a month, and Jamie goes into College one day a week. For the rest of the week Jamie works as part of the team and is happy to take on any challenge that he is presented with, whether that be fault finding, dealing with customer enquiries or listingparts to be ordered."
Jamie said "I started training in mechanics when I was in Year 10 at school with Citroen, so when Phil took me on I already had two years experience of working on cars."
"I would recommend an Apprenticeship to any school leaver. You learn about all aspects of the company you are working for and because you are working in a real business challenges come up every day and so your knowledge is increasing all the time."
The T H White Group
The T H White Group is a private company which began in 1832. Today it has a turnover in excess of £90 million and interests in agriculture, 4x4 vehicles, lorry cranes, professional grass care equipment, construction equipment, security and fire systems, as well as materials handling and bulk storage installations.
The T H White Grasscare Division operates as a Ransomes Jacobsen and Wiedenmann Main Dealer from three locations: Reading, Redditch and Tetbury. They are specialists in the supply of Grass Machinery to Local Authorities, Golf Courses and Grounds Care Contractors in the Birmingham and West Midlands area, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Bristol, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey.
Tim Lane, the Manager of the Grasscare division, explained that TH Whites has employed apprentices across all it's divisions for many many years. "We invest a huge amount of time working with local schools, colleges and careers fairs to ensure we recruit the very best talent for our businesses. In particular we employ apprentices through the service workshops to maintain a good pool of skilled technicians within the business.
We employ apprentices as part of our overall business strategy to grow all areas of our business which is made up by the people we employ. Many of our managers today have come through the apprenticeship route.
Specifically in grasscare apprentices have bought huge value to the business. Not only do young people bring new ideas and a fresh mind they also ensure that our business does not become stagnant and unflexible. We operate in a very competitive environment and the input of apprentices and their learning really helps our business to maintain a strong service reputation. We maintain and expect high standards of our apprentices.
Generally our apprentices go on a block release programme at South Worcestershire College and providing they complete the course and achieve a high pass rate we offer them a full time job as a service engineer. We regularly get feedback about how polite and enthusiastic our apprentices are if they go out on site. As they advance they spend time in the workshops and can develop into a sales or service management role. I have one colleague who has done this and is now a branch manager. We offer long term commitment and career opportunities."
