National Apprenticeship Week Celebrations at Riverside College

A week of championing apprentices and celebrating apprenticeship success stories took place at Riverside College last week, all in celebration of National Apprenticeship Week 2018.

Each year the national event focuses on different themes celebrating successful apprentices in many different ways. The themes for this year’s event were ‘Works for Me’, ‘10k Talks’ and ‘Class of 2017’. To tie in with this, Riverside College created a series of videos with Runcorn based manufacturing company Sigmatex Limited to see how apprenticeships work for them. The college also spoke with class of 2017 apprentice Leah Buckley who works at Crème De La Crème Hair & Beauty Boutique in Widnes to hear how she has progressed.

The college also hosted a 10k Talks event at their Centre Stage Theatre in which potential apprentices were able to hear talks from major employers and speak to them about vacancies they can apply for. Employers from a range of sectors including Science, Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Construction, IT and Sport were at the event in support of National Apprenticeship Week. Former Riverside College apprentice and now full time employee Millie Kilshaw also spoke to attendees about the many benefits of completing an apprenticeship and how it has been a success for her.

Jayne Smith, Head of Skills and Enterprise at Riverside College said, “National Apprenticeship Week 2018 has been a great way to demonstrate how apprenticeships work for individuals, employers, the local community and wider economy. We were very proud to celebrate the roll of honour with our class of 2017 and meet so many future apprentices at our employer fair.

“We are continuing to expand our apprenticeship programmes and are delighted to launch new apprenticeships in Accountancy and Digital Marketing in response to employer needs across the region.”

Riverside College currently offers apprenticeships in Engineering, Motor Vehicle, Manufacturing, Science, Sport, Hairdressing, Management, Health and Social Care, IT, Business, Construction Trades, Retail, Hospitality and Catering. There are over 700 students enrolled onto apprenticeships courses with high profile local and national employers.

The college works with employers to meet their future training and recruitment needs and support apprenticeships in over 50 different pathways. If you are interested in doing an apprenticeship or would like to hire a motivated young person to your workplace, please email apprenticeships@riverside.ac.uk or call 0151 257 2828.