FURTHER EDUCATION COLLEGES SOUTHWEST - On your doorstep. On your side.

Apprentices have a far better chance of getting a job than better-qualified rivals because of the practical experience they have, according to a high-profile employer in Somerset.

The Barton Dairy Farm

If cows could only talk, they’d be joining a farmer and his son in praising the apprenticeships offered by Bicton College.

Aligra

There’s not much you could teach Wes Seare about recruitment. As Branch Operations Manager of the Aligra recruitment consultancy in Swindon, he devotes his working life to helping others find the right person for the job.

Hamworthy Combustion

Downturn dismay and national belt-tightening may be dominating the news, but the thought-to-be-extinct permanent job is alive and well in Dorset – thanks to an enlightened engineering company and The Bournemouth & Poole College.

Babcock International Group

If Will Bowden of Babcock International Group’s Marine Division in Appledore sounds like a keen advocate of apprenticeships, it’s because he’s talking from personal experience.

Lift West

Chloe Allen is going up in the world – and not just because she works with fork-lift trucks all day as part of her apprenticeship in light vehicle maintenance and repair.

Bath & North East Somerset Council

Young people embarking on their careers can’t usually expect their jobs to be something to write home about – but apprentice Tom Gladden’s is. Literally.

Cowley Manor

Kelly-Marie Ody is thanking her lucky stars that she did her apprenticeship through Cirencester College – for while it can be difficult to find work placements in the beauty industry, she landed one at a top spa beloved of Britain’s most demanding clientele.

Trethem Mill Touring Park

Few family business owners realise they can take on their sons or daughters as apprentices – but the benefits of doing so can transform lives as well as the bottom line.

Mooshmedia Marketing

A creative design agency owner who needed an apprentice but couldn’t find the right type of training for him is praising Plymouth College of Art for coming to the rescue.