Skills Dinner promotes value of apprenticeships across the city
Companies and organisations from across Wolverhampton came together at a city Skills Dinner to hear how hiring an apprentice could benefit their business.
Wolverhampton council worker and former apprentice Jack Strickland spoke of his personal experience, gaining training and forging his new career.
Taken on by the council after 12 months training as an apprentice he found himself at the heart of the action working on one of the city's biggest events of the year: the Wolves open top bus parade to celebrate the football club's promotion to the Premier League, when tens of thousands of people flocked to the city centre and West Park.
Jack, now a clerical assistant at the council, studied for a Level 2 Apprenticeship in Business Administration. He said: “I went into full-time education after leaving school but realised it wasn’t for me, I hate sitting in a classroom and I wanted to get into work. I realised I didn’t have the qualifications I needed to get the job I wanted which was why I chose the apprenticeship pathway.”
Another inspiring story came from David Loughton CBE, the chief executive of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust for the past 14 years, who revealed how an engineering apprenticeship launched his career.
He said: “I was not academic at all, I’m dyslexic and I left school when I was 16. I did a five year Engineering Apprenticeship, worked on the shop floor, then got into management and the rest is history. I was a chief executive by the time i was 33 and a lot of it was down to the grounding that I had and the skills I learned during my apprenticeship.”
The University of Wolverhampton hosted the annual skills dinner n partnership with Wolverhampton xouncil as part of the City Business Programme, running this week and next
The theme of the skills dinner was ‘Improving Apprenticeships in the City of Wolverhampton’ and more than 100 guests attended including employers, training providers, school and college heads and city partners from across a range of business sectors.
Jackie Dunne, deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Wolverhampton, said: “The university is a sector leader in degree apprenticeships – we now have over 700 degree apprentices studying across three of our faculties and we plan to grow this over the next few years.
“There’s a real buzz around Wolverhampton at the moment and without a doubt we can achieve so much more together than we can individually. We’ve seen first-hand what apprenticeships can do for businesses but we also know that there’s a perception that they are only for 16 to 18 year olds or only available in trade sectors.
“The Skills Dinner not only celebrated the achievements of apprentices in the region, but highlighted the wide range of opportunities that are available to businesses considering taking the apprenticeship route.”
Express & Star deputy editor Diane Davies added: "It was a privilege to hear the experiences of apprentices like Jack, who spoke with a maturity beyond his years. It shows the benefits apprenticeships can bring to young people and to the businesses that take them on.
"As a business, the Express & Star is committed to promoting apprenticeships, particularly in our work on the highly successful Ladder for the Black Country apprentice recruitment programme."
