Posted: 20/05/08
West Notts & Portland Colleges See 1st Apprentices Study
Today saw the first Apprentices attend at Portland Training College in conjunction with West Nottinghamshire College. Both Rebecca Smith (19) and Natalie Buxton (18) celebrated with West Notts tutors and the Principal of Portland College today, as they received their certificates of thanks from Portland College.
In a matter of weeks both girls will receive their NVQ Level 2 certificates in Health and Social Care. The girls are the first programme led* apprentices West Notts have had at Portland College for Health and Social Care.
West Notts College Tutor, Emma Brown said of their success, “The girls have both worked incredibly hard on their supporting care practice certificate, their key skills and ultimately their NVQ and are due to achieve their full qualification in just 9 months. Usually this apprenticeship can take a student up to two years to complete. The girls have been absolutely fantastic, they have been enthusiastic and have shown commitment to the course both having 100% attendance. The girls have been a valuable asset to the group, participating in all activities within the delivered sessions.”
Principal of Portland Training College, Dr Mark Dale is equally thrilled with the girls’ progress, “Both Rebecca and Natalie have excelled with their studies and have worked with a range of students here at Portland who have some kind of physical disability. They have worked within residential areas and supported our students in their classroom environments also and have built up an amazing rapport. I am delighted that we have built up such a successful partnership with West Nottinghamshire College on this apprenticeship and I am delighted that both Rebecca and Natalie are now applying for Care Tutor jobs with us. I know they will do very well in their careers.”
Rebecca says, “I have had a great work based learning experience here at Portland and am pleased to have almost achieved my apprenticeship. I am looking forward to applying for my job here!”
Natalie said, “I have put a lot of effort into achieving all of my units, some of which I wasn’t legally able to perform until I was 18 in December, but I have now caught up. I am looking to study further, possibly doing Child Psychology alongside my work as a Care Tutor.”
Both girls were awarded £100 from the Principal of Portland College. Dr Mark Dale added, “Ultimately these young people have worked hard on their placements on a voluntary basis. This is a small token of thanks and congratulations to them for all of their wonderful work.”
* Programme led means that students can do an apprenticeship without being employed by a company but go into a company on placement or work experience – but we don’t call it work experience as such, we prefer to refer to it as being on placement.
