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Case studies

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.

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.

Bancrofts Plumbing & Heating

Apprenticeships are a real economic benefit to the plumbing industry as well as a good way of finding out who’s suited to the job, says the head of a Paignton firm.

Bath & North East Somerset Council

Everyone’s a winner when you offer young people apprenticeships, according to a senior figure at Bath & North East Somerset Council.

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.

Crown Estate Farm

They say that a good apprenticeship can take you a long way – and in Will Powell’s case, it’s taking him right to the other side of the world.

Currys Motors

Daniel Sheppard didn’t just change wheels and head gaskets during his apprenticeship at a Devizes garage. He also changed his life.

Dorset County Council

Kelly Greening’s been mad about computers since she was given her first one at the age of nine – and now she’s one of the star performers in the IT Services department of Dorset County Council.

Dorset Police

When you’re Head Girl at your school and a straight-A student, why on Earth would you want to become an apprentice instead of going to university?

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.

Karen Christensen Hair & Beauty

Karen Christensen knows a great hairstyle when she sees one – and she knows a great college, too. Which is why the hairdresser who’s spent decades making the people of Wells look even more stylish uses Stode College to train her apprentices.

Kawasaki Precision Machinery UK

Few apprentices are as fortunate as those at Kawasaki Precision Machinery UK. For while their counterparts in other organisations might be feeling vulnerable in this challenging financial climate, the Plymouth-based company feels highly protective towards them and sees them as vital to its future.

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.

MG Contractors

Every career has to have the right foundations – and Ian James’s are stronger than most because he’s built them himself.

Millfield School

Not many employers take on apprentices who are in their mid-twenties – but one who has says it opened his eyes to a string of benefits he hadn’t expected.

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.

Mount Pleasant Inn

Take one girl, add a generous helping of enthusiasm and a day a week at college, and you have the recipe for the perfect apprenticeship.

North Somerset Counci

With more and more young people being encouraged to go to university, anyone who turns down the chance and decides to be an apprentice instead is bound to catch an employer’s eye.

Pearce Platford

Stroud College has helped a local electrical engineering company slash the drop-out rate for its younger employees from 30% to zero.

Rick & Jill Stein’s Seafood Restaurant

Rick & Jill Stein’s Seafood Restaurant is a firm believer in the benefits of apprenticeships – not least because they improve staff retention.

South Gloucestershire Council

South Gloucestershire Council is hoping to give young people an opportunity to develop their skills and gain valuable work experience by investing in an apprenticeship scheme.

South Somerset District Council

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.

SPP Pumps

Gary Hurcombe knows all about apprentices. He’s been taking them on for a decade. But even he didn’t realise how lucky he was when Oliver Jenkins walked into his office at SPP Pumps in Coleford, Gloucester.

Swindon Borough Council

Young people are meant to benefit from apprenticeships – but a lot of youngsters in Swindon are doing so without ever becoming apprentices themselves.

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.

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.

Uni-Mill Engineering

Everything undertaken by the team at Uni-Mill Engineering – a Swindon company serving high-profile aerospace and military clients – is precise, considered, and well-targeted.

WPA

As a not-for-profit private health insurer helping customers fund their healthcare, WPA is all about treating customers as we would expect to be treated ourselves.