ABINGDON & WITNEY COLLEGE LAUNCHES FULL-TIME CONSTRUCTION SKILLS OFFER

Abingdon & Witney College has launched a new full-time course in construction skills targeted at school leavers or adults wishing to learn construction skills on a full-time basis. Courses will be available in carpentry and joinery, plumbing and electrical installation, with part-time courses in renewable technologies like heat pumps and solar energy also available shortly.

Head of Faculty Shane Mumford said: ““We are absolutely delighted to be opening new construction courses in Abingdon. Our courses at Witney are over-subscribed, and our apprenticeship provision in Bicester is in high demand.”

It is several years since the college was able to offer construction courses on the Abingdon campus. The new course offer is part of the college’s new Green Construction Skills Centre which is currently under construction itself.

The centre is part of multi-millionpound investment by the college in the construction sector and follows on from the opening of the Apprenticeship Training Centre in Bicester last year.

Apprenticeship use increases as fight for talent intensifies

New research from Grant Thornton UK shows that the West Midlands’ mid-market is increasingly making use of apprenticeships as a means of upskilling their people at all levels.

With job vacancies and resignations at record highs, Grant Thornton’s latest Business Outlook Tracker survey shows that there’s an upward trend of apprenticeship use in the mid-market which is set to expand in 2022. More than half of respondents in the West Midlands agreed that more of their people will be trained using apprenticeships this year than in 2021.

Employers saw additional strategic benefits to apprenticeships with nearly half of the business leaders surveyed saying that apprenticeships had helped to improve social mobility in their business and more than half agreed that formal development supports employee wellbeing.

The study found that mid-market organisations are now using apprenticeships at all levels of the business from entry level to senior management. More than half of those surveyed said that the Apprenticeship Levy had been a motivating factor in the increased use.

£1.8 million electric vehicle and retrofit training facility heading to Coventry College

A new £1.8 million electric vehicle and retrofit training facility is heading to Coventry College to help employers rise to the industrial challenges of climate change, prepare learners for careers in emission-free motoring, and build the homes of the future.

It will be the first site of its type in Coventry and Warwickshire and is expected to open this month (March). The new skills programmes will provide businesses with the skills and knowledge to capitalise on industry opportunities and achieve the government’s net-zero targets, giving students practical experience under the bonnets of electric vehicles.

Coventry College secured the capital investment from the Government’s Strategic Development Fund.

Sue Knight, Partner and Practice Leader at Grant Thornton UK in the Midlands, said: “We’re seeing clients being ever more strategic with their use of apprenticeships to address issues such as improving diversity in the workforce, achieving sustainable recruitment and replacing traditional graduate programmes with highly desirable qualifications. The ability to tailor apprenticeships to specific requirements is especially valuable and businesses are also using these courses to bring new skills in valuable fields such as digital, finance and data analysis into their organisation.”

BPE has evolved to be unlike most other law firms, with an approach based on strong commercial realism, a reputation for the highest quality client service and a refreshingly open and inclusive culture.

We searched long and hard for a set of values that truly summed up the good parts of our culture and we constantly revisit them to make sure they are still real and true.

• We celebrate and support individuality and diversity in our clients and our people

• We work together to achieve more

• We are committed to continuous improvement

• We think and work creatively and innovatively

• We care about our people, our clients, our work and our communities

A great place to work cares about and supports its employees whilst also challenging them to grow with the organisation. At BPE we develop careers in an innovative environment. We’ve built our team on the sharpest legal minds from other law firms (including the City), from business and straight out of law college and also school. It’s the perfect blend of experience and energy and we give all our people the autonomy and freedom to find ways to work better with our clients.

Our trainees and paralegals are given real responsibility from day one – they sit and mix with senior staff and are encouraged to be themselves, chase ideas and roll their sleeves up on challenging work from the outset.

A career in the legal industry is full of