Celebrating National Apprenticeship Week

National Apprenticeship Week (7th - 11th February) is in full swing at York College. The week is packed with different activities to raise awareness of the importance and value of apprenticeships.

York College hairdressing apprentices highlighted their skills by providing services for the York Carers Forum, hospitality students held a 'Love St Leonard's' event, selling baking in aid of St Leonard's hospice and the York College construction apprentices designed and built models of their work in the college atrium.

The College hosted an Apprenticeship Open Evening to present an opportunity for budding apprentices to meet with local employers and for local employers to come face to face with the workforce of the future. School leavers and their parents/ guardians met with some of the city’s largest employers including; Nestle, York Minster Stoneyard, Craven & Co, Jaguar/ Land Rover, the NHS and Fifty50 hair Design. They also saw the College’s learning facilities and attended presentations on what it is like to be an apprentice studying at York College.

Also, York College hosted a Business Breakfast with the National Apprenticeship Service to which local employers were invited.

Assistant Principal for Employer Engagement at York College, Louise Lawrence-Crockford, commented: “Apprenticeships can ensure that a workforce has the practical skills qualifications employers need. The mixture of on and off job learning ensures that apprentices learn the skills that work best for individual organisations, they can help businesses across all sectors, offering a route to harness fresh and new talent. It is a fact that UK businesses consider skills shortages and recruitment difficulties a bigger threat to performance than soaring spending. More than a quarter of these rate this form of vocational training higher than any other qualification.”